The Spirit Of The Beast
by JuniperGentle
Summary: In the aftermath of Spiral Core, the world was restless. Something was coming. Something bigger than they had ever seen before. It was an oncoming storm, huge and dark on the horizon, lifting dripping wings into the gathering night... MFB-Beyblade crossover, not related to To Learn Their Ways.
1. Prologue - A Midsummer Night's Dream

_Jointly written with _brave kid

_Set just after the events of Spiral Core, before the Star arrives. _

_This is in no way related to my previous cross-over, To Learn Their Ways – if you like, it takes place in a separate cross-over universe._

* * *

**Prologue – A Midsummer Night's Dream**

The night it happened, Gingka had stayed awake to talk to his dad, who was over on the other side of the world in America, via video call.

"So as you can see, the WBBA is getting stronger and stronger all the time," Ryo said, his eyes gleaming with plans and ideas. "It won't be long before we can hold another Championship."

"Yeah," Gingka said softly. "That'd be good. Get all the bladers back together again."

His father must have caught something in his voice. "Gingka, are you alright?"

"Yes, of course," he said immediately, making an effort to brighten his tone. "When should we start thinking about where the preliminary battles are going to be held?"

Ryo ignored him. "Are you going to be up to entering?"

Gingka couldn't think of an answer to that. It had been a month since the events on the floating city, and gradually the nightmares of just _how close _he had come to losing himself both against Faust and the Spiral Core itself were beginning to fade. Pegasus was as strong as ever, if not stronger – Madoka had just finished repairing him once more after the damage he had taken from the Spiral Core - but blading just didn't have the same feel to it as it once had. There was a distance between him and Pegasus, a gulf that Gingka didn't know how to cross. He'd tried to reconnect with the bright constellation, but nothing had come of it. Pegasus still obeyed him. In fact, he obeyed even more so now than he had before the battle against Spiral Core. But it was almost mechanical now when they battled, rather than the most exciting thing in his life.

The only one he trusted with the secret was Tsubasa. The Eagle blader, older and more experienced than Gingka, had suggested that it could be something similar to what had happened with the dark power from L-Drago, and its effect on Tsubasa himself. He had spoken of days when he had dreaded having to train or battle anyone because he just couldn't connect with Eagle. Slowly, the darkness had replaced that connection, and it was only when he came out the other side of the dark power that his closeness with his constellation had been repaired.

But the darkness was long gone, swallowed up by Tsubasa's determination to win, and yet Gingka was still fighting. So it couldn't be that.

"Gingka?"

Gingka suddenly realised that he hadn't answered his father's question. "What?"

Ryo sighed. "Are you going to enter the Championship?"

"I-I don't know," Gingka said at last. "I want to battle properly again but... I thought that we'd made the WBBA stronger so that things like Dark Nebula and Spiral Core couldn't appear. What if it happens again?"

"You will rise to the challenge," his father answered, eyes serious. "You are my son, and you are a blader of Koma Village. No matter what comes your way, you will master it."

Gingka nodded. "I guess so," he agreed, though privately he knew he was lying. "Anyway, if that was everything, it's nearly midnight here, so I need to get to sleep."

"Oh yeah," said Ryo ruefully. "I forgot about the time difference. I was wondering why you had the curtains drawn. Good night, then, Gingka. Sleep well."

"Good night, Dad," Gingka answered softly, and closed the connection.

For a moment or two, he stayed exactly where he was. He just wasn't sure he could live up to his dad's expectations. He felt fragile, like a fine wire being held taut by two great weights that might at any moment become too much and snap him in an instant. It wasn't a nice feeling, as if he was constantly on edge, waiting for some great catastrophe to happen.

He certainly wasn't the only one to have nightmares recently. Madoka said it was because of the massive amounts of energy that Spiral Core had released, charging the atmosphere with electricity and static. It had even been reported on the news that more people were going to psychiatrists because of recurring nightmares than in recorded history. The whole world felt tense and wrong somehow, so much so that some days if Gingka stood still outside for too long, his skin began to prickle as if reacting to the extraordinary tension in the air. He was distracted too easily, mind skittering over problems and thoughts like a pond skater over still waters, part of him not really wanting to delve into the depths of his own mind. After all, he wasn't sure what he'd find there any more.

Gingka stretched out, lying flat on his bed and staring at the ceiling. Normally, he had the answers. Normally, he had the brilliant ideas, the correct path. Now, everything was blurred and he hated it. He closed his eyes and let his mind drift, hoping that maybe tonight the storm of electricity that cloaked the globe would allow him one night's peace.

It was not to be. The digital clock on his bedside table showed the minutes oozing past, and still his mind spun in fuzzy circles that crackled with static and darkness. It was choking in his room, too hot, too much for his exhausted mind to manage...

The universe screamed.

It was only for a split second, and afterwards Gingka would wonder if he had dreamt it as he sat bolt upright. But it was real, and it was loud, and it was heart-breaking.

As the phantom ringing in his ears died away, Gingka realised that something else was happening. Outside his window, a light was growing, slowly and steadily. The curtains were letting more and more brilliance through, and beneath the brilliance Gingka thought he could hear something... something singing. Could it be dawn already? Had he really been lying there for that long?

But the light outside his window was not the sun. It was blueish, pale, and getting brighter as he watched. Heart pounding, throat dry, he yanked the curtains open and stared in utter astonishment at the sight before him.

Diving straight towards him was an enormous blue dragon, easily the size of L-Drago, its long, snake-like body shining. There was no aggression in the large, jewel-like eyes; just a deep and unimaginable sadness. The sound that Gingka had heard was rolling before it in great waves, so wonderful and so sad that Gingka felt tears glisten in the corners of his eyes.

The dragon was singing.

"Wh-what?" Gingka stammered as the dragon reached the window and passed straight through. The coils of the blue form filled the entire room, and his head turned until he could stare straight into Gingka's eyes.

_Gingka._

The voice throbbed through his body, and Gingka took an automatic step backwards, away from those terribly sad eyes.

_Gingka._

"Who are you? What do you want?"

_Gingka._

The dragon stretched out his long neck and touched his nose to Gingka's chest, which suddenly crackled with pain. But before he could cry out, the dragon pressed a bit harder, and Gingka completely blacked out.

.

When he opened his eyes, he was lying, shaking on the floor of his bedroom. There was no sign of the huge dragon, and the only thing that suggested that something had happened was that the curtains were open. What on earth could that have been?

* * *

_Right, here is the promised brand-new cross-over! I have no idea when I'll be updating, as Real Life keeps getting in the way and I have essays again, but rest assured that, just like To Learn Their Ways, this is completely planned out. I just have to write the long-form version. Enjoy!_


	2. Chapter 1 - The Dragon's Arrival

**Chapter 1 – The Dragon's Arrival**

"What was that?" Gingka asked aloud.

His mind felt clearer, strangely. He could breathe freely without feeling like he was going to choke with every breath. It was like he had dived into clear, icy water, shocking him out of the faded, blurred, static-filled world he had been living in for the past few weeks.

His bey was in the middle of the floor, spinning.

Gingka blinked and rubbed his eyes before pinching himself, trying to convince himself that this wasn't a dream. But no, there was the blue bey, and when he reached out to his partner, there was Pegasus waiting for him.

Except that Pegasus was not alone. There was another presence in the bey, a great and forceful power that ripped Gingka's breath away like a gale.

It was the dragon, as blue as the sky and as strong as winter. Its power was nothing like the other dragon that Gingka knew of – it wasn't fire and darkness and rage. Rather, it was like a gust of wind, bright and fair and full of promise on a sunny morning. The dragon had expanded to fill every tiny crevice of the blade without pushing out Pegasus, yet even though there was no room left it didn't feel as if the two beasts were cramped. In fact, Pegasus seemed happier with this arrangement than he had been on his own.

"Who are you?" Gingka asked the dragon, trying to reach out to it in the same way that he would reach for Pegasus. But there was no response beyond a faint trill of notes at the very edge of his mind, which wasn't anywhere near a sensible answer that Gingka could understand. The bey wobbled and toppled to the floor, spinning to a halt right in front of him. He reached out to touch it.

"Who are you?" he asked again, brushing a finger against the edge of the bey. The creature within made no sound – maybe it couldn't now that it was safely contained in the blade. "Pegasus? What's happening?"

His constellation leaned against his mind, radiating an idea of _peace-safety-guardianship_ that Gingka took to mean that the dragon meant no harm. But underneath the image of safety was another, darker one from the dragon itself – one of wariness and watchfulness. Gingka had never felt anything like it, not even when he had been running along the corridors of Spiral Core on guard for traps and ambushes. Almost all of the dragon's focus was on something else, something far away, and the closer that Gingka tried to look, the further he got dragged into it.

Gingka sighed. He wasn't the expert on these things – Madoka was. But waking her up at midnight seemed a very poor payment for all her hard work fixing Pegasus, so he would just have to wait until tomorrow.

Pegasus leaned against his mind again, bringing a familiarity that Gingka hadn't felt since the events of Spiral Core. It was that more than anything that was stopping Gingka from panicking and waking everyone else in the house to work out what was happening, because if Pegasus was relaxed and happy with that dragon sharing with him, then surely it wasn't a bad thing? Pegasus had never yet allowed any harm come to Gingka or those that he cared about, and somehow he doubted that such a thing would start happening now.

But what _was_ the dragon? It wasn't a constellation – there was only one dragon-based constellation and Ryuga had that one. But it was quite at home in Gingka's shining blue blade, so it must have some connection to beyblades...

Mind full of questions, Gingka picked up his blade, wrapped his fingers around it tightly and clambered back into his bed. He could feel the power of the two beasts humming through the metal and couldn't help but wonder what on earth he had managed to get himself into this time. After all, it wasn't every day that a _dragon_ came soaring through your window and into your blade. He could only hope that Madoka would be able to get to the bottom of all this – and that after all this excitement, he would be able to get to sleep at all.

* * *

_Hey guys! Thanks for all the interest shown in this story - it means a lot to me and it's a huge encouragement! However, I'm coming to the end of my second year of uni, and so I'm afraid I'm off on hiatus again until after 13th May. Sorry about that, but I'd like to get a really good grade for this year, so I'm putting all my effort into essays for the next two weeks. After that, though, I'm back to writing, and hopefully this time I won't end up with writer's block again..._

_Feel free to review/PM me - I'll still respond to those, but I won't be doing any story-writing for the next fortnight._

_Thanks in advance for your patience!_

_JuniperGentle_


	3. Chapter 2 - You Are Not Alone

_Finally!_

* * *

**Chapter 2 – You Are Not Alone **

"MADOKA!"

"Down here, Gingka!"

It was the following morning, and counter to his expectations Gingka had managed to get a decent amount of sleep. Not that it had stopped him from dashing over to Madoka's shop as soon as he opened his eyes. He bounded over to the steps that led down to the workshop, only hesitating for a second to wonder at how calm Madoka seemed at the volume of his yell. Madoka's father, who was managing the shop, had dropped the face-bolt he was polishing and glared at Gingka as the redhead swung down the basement steps.

"Madoka, you're never going to believe this..." Gingka began as he jumped the last three stairs in a bound, but stopped just as suddenly, realising that he was not the only visitor that Madoka had.

Slouched on the sofa, as arrogant and proud as ever, Kyouya glared up at his greatest rival. "Let me guess – you had a really weird dream last night about some sort of creature diving into your beyblade and you want Madoka to work out what it means?"

Gingka blinked, confused. "H-how did you know?"

"Because you're not the first one to get here," another voice informed him, and silver-haired Tsubasa straightened up from where he had been leaning over Madoka's shoulder, examining the three blades lying in front of the young mechanic. "Though if you have any new information, I'm sure it would be helpful."

"How many more people do you think are going to get here?" a third voice asked, and Gingka's eyes met Kenta's exhausted brown ones from where the younger boy sat on top of a box of spare parts. "First Tsubasa, then Kyouya, then me, and now Gingka too?"

The day was just getting more and more confusing! "Just what is going on?" Gingka spluttered.

"That's what we'd like to know," Kyouya growled. "All we know is that the three of us have all had pretty similar dreams last night where some kind of creature flew through our windows at about midnight, climbed into our blades, and we then woke up to find out that there's an extra power source alongside our constellations. Sound familiar?"

Gingka nodded, speechless. Kenta hunched his shoulders forward. "But what _are_ they? And why us?" The green-haired boy looked as if he hadn't slept a wink since whatever-it-was had come crashing into his life.

Madoka spun her swivel chair around to look at them all. "So you've all experienced exactly the same phenomenon?" she asked, frowning. "That doesn't make sense. Even with Gingka added to the mix, there's nothing that ties only the four of you together and no-one else. There just doesn't seem to be any logic to it. Even the creatures don't make much sense – I thought at first that they were matching up to the constellations, but Kenta proved that wrong, unless... Gingka, what sort of creature did you see?"

"A-a dragon," Gingka stammered. "A big, blue dragon with eyes like the sun itself."

Madoka's expression darkened still further. "A _dragon?_" she asked. "This just keeps getting weirder."

Tsubasa leaned back against the desk. The light from the overhead bulb threw the shadows under his eyes into sharp relief, and Gingka couldn't help but wonder if this was not the first sleepless night the silver-haired blader had suffered recently. "There's just no link between them," he murmured. "All different creatures, all to different people, with absolutely no connection between them that couldn't be applied to someone else as well."

Gingka gave him a sharp look. "Different creatures?"

Tsubasa nodded. "Yes, all different. I got some kind of red bird in mine."

"Mine's a tiger, but it's got _green_ stripes." Kyouya volunteered, looking slightly disgusted.

"And mine's a turtle, I think," Kenta added. "Well, it sort of looks like a turtle, but it's really big and black and sort of purple-y. I don't think turtles are normally purple, are they, Madoka?"

"No, not normally," Madoka told him absently. "Wait, so we have a tiger, a bird of some sort, a dragon and a turtle? It sounds kind of familiar... Can I see them?"

"Sure!" Gingka offered straight away. "Can I launch in here?"

"Go ahead. I'd like to run some more analysis on Pegasus anyway after I fixed him up."

Gingka pulled Pegasus out of his pocket and slotted it into his launcher. "Let it rip!"

The blue blade jumped into the centre of the floor, holding its position obediently. Gingka frowned. How was he going to call out his new beast when he didn't have a name for it? Well, Pegasus was a... well, a _pegasus,_ so maybe the dragon would be called Dragon?

"Dragon! Come out! Show yourself!"

There was a loud, low hiss, like the sound of a train passing, and from the centre of the bey, the coiling, writhing form of the newly-dubbed Dragon pushed itself into the room. Planting its strong hind legs in mid-air, the creature twisted its head around to look curiously at Gingka, who gestured happily to it.

"Everyone, this is Dragon."

"Gingka..." Tsubasa said slowly, as if he was being very careful about exactly what he was saying, "Gingka, there's nothing there."

Gingka stared at him. "But it's right there!" He pointed. "Look! There's its head, and there's its tail, and..." The other four looked back at him completely blankly. "You... you really can't see it?"

Madoka shook her head. "My computer's not picking anything up either, Gingka."

"Let me try," Kyouya suggested. "Let it rip!"

Leone joined Pegasus on the floor, spinning steadily on its tip. "Alright, then, you silly tiger – let's show Gingka how to do this."

Kenta frowned. "You're not going to give him a name?"

"He hasn't told me yet. Until he tells me what his name is, he's going to be "you silly tiger." He answers to it though – look!" He pointed up into the air next to Dragon and grinned. "You see, Gingka, that's how you do it."

But there was absolutely nothing there, apart from Dragon – and if there was a green-striped tiger hiding behind Dragon, it had to be pretty small.

Tsubasa was shaking his head, his expression halfway between confusion and fear. "Kyouya, there's still nothing there. I can't see anything at all. There's no dragon, no tiger."

"But I can _see_ him!"

"And I can see Dragon," Gingka added. "Madoka, what's going on?"

The girl wasn't paying attention, fingers flying over her computer keyboard as she hunted through the vast webs of information at her disposal. Suddenly:

"AHA!"

Kenta jumped and nearly fell off his perch. "What is it, Madoka?"

Madoka looked up at them with a serious expression. "Gingka, come and look at this. Is this Dragon?" She turned her computer screen around and Gingka gasped. It _was_ Dragon, right down to the huge, curving silver claws. His blue neck was extended fully, mouth gaping in a roar that Gingka could almost hear. He looked powerful, fearless and utterly beautiful.

"And Kyouya, is this your tiger?"

A second picture joined that of Dragon; a massive cat with emerald-coloured stripes under the golden armour that sprang wing-like from its shoulder blades. Impressive, pearly fangs were bared in a red cavern of a mouth, one paw raised to sweep away its enemies with claws unsheathed. Gingka heard Kyouya's intake of breath and knew the answer even before the lion-blader nodded.

"That's him, alright," he said.

Madoka's expression remained as serious as ever. "Then Tsubasa, Kenta – are these the beasts you saw?"

Two more pictures quartered the screen, pushing Dragon and the tiger down to the bottom as they slid into place. On the left, a giant tortoise stood firm on two sturdy legs, a grey-black shell shielding its back and muscular arms spread wide as if waiting to grapple something to the ground. Its beak-like mouth was closed, but that only added to the impression of silent power, like a wall of stone or a mountain crowned with an avalanche. On the right, a red bird spread its wings across the entire frame, every feather as vivid as a flame, tipped with gold and crowned with a mane of white hair that crackled behind it as it arced its wings up over its head, beak open in a silent cry.

"That's him," Kenta breathed, fingers brushing the picture of the tortoise almost reverentially. "How did you know?"

Madoka's eyes were grave. "Because I remembered the old stories about beyblading."

"You mean about the star that fell to earth and made Pegasus and L-Drago?" Gingka asked. "What's that got to do with it?"

Madoka shook her head. "Not those stories, Gingka. I'm talking about the start of beyblading as we know it today. The very first World Championship." At the blank looks all around her, she sighed. "When the WBBA started organising the World Championships, I used their database and found out that there used to be a similar organisation operating only a few miles away that used to organise big blading competitions – and World Championships. They stopped about ten years ago when there was a big explosion that no-one really understood at the headquarters, and everything was rebuilt from the ground up, but the records are still around. I checked them out, and..."

But Madoka's story was interrupted by a frantic beeping from her laptop. Surprised, she looked down. "Oh! Gingka, Masamune's calling from America!"

"Hey Masamune!"

The black-and-white-haired blader was sitting on his bed, still in his pyjamas. In the background, Gingka could make out the slowly stirring shape of Toby on the bed in the corner, and Zeo sitting up in the bed beyond him, rubbing his eyes. It looked very early in the morning – or possibly late at night.

"Gingka?" Masamune asked. "What're you doing with Madoka? Never mind, I've got the most awesome thing to tell you – you'll never guess what happened!"

Gingka exchanged a glance with Kyouya. "You were asleep and had a weird dream where a strange creature came diving into your blade and you've just woken up from it and want to know what it is?"

Masamune stared. "Wh- How did you know that?"

"Because the same thing happened to us," Tsubasa said, leaning on Madoka's shoulder to be caught by the camera. "Kenta, Kyouya, Gingka and I all had almost identical dreams. Madoka was about to explain it to us – you're just in time."

Masamune pulled his knees up to his chest just as Zeo got to his feet and wandered over sleepily. "Oh, hey Gingka," he said, and yawned. "Masamune, could this really not wait until morning?"

"It _is_ morning."

Zeo scowled. "_Proper_ morning. As in, not just past midnight."

"Yeah, but you should have seen it! It was _huge!_ Way bigger than Striker. Where'd it come from, Madoka?"

The exasperated look that Zeo gave the group in Japan spoke volumes about the chaos that having Masamune as a room-mate obviously caused. Before Madoka could launch back into her explanation, though, there was a sudden crackle of sound and the video vanished into a cloud of static.

"Oh _no!_" Madoka cried. "That stupid leftover static from Spiral Core, it's breaking _everything!"_

"The energy spikes are completely random," Zeo's voice mused through the snow-on-black that had replaced the video. "We've been monitoring them from here, and there's no recognisable pattern. They're a pain, though – hey, I can see you again!" Indeed, the video was back, just as Toby sat up in the background of the American room.

"Whasgoinon?"

"Conference call to Japan," Zeo told him. "Go back to sleep. I'll tell you in the morning."

But Toby shook his head, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. "Nah, I'm awake now. Hey – Tsubasa! Madoka! Masamune, why are you calling them at midnight?"

"It's not midnight there, I was just explaining that."

"But it's midnight here and I thought we were meant to be in bed early so that we could go training tomorrow..."

"Yeah, but..."

"QUIET!" Zeo thundered. "Can we just get this conversation over with so that I can go back to bed, please?"

To the surprise of the Japanese group, Masamune shut up. Toby clambered onto Masamune's bed and slid into the space between Zeo and the headboard, leaning forwards to prop his elbows on his knees. "Go on, Madoka."

Madoka quickly repeated all that she had been saying to the Japanese group only a few minutes before. "And when I was looking at the files for the bladers who won the first – and the second, actually – World Championship, these were the pictures of their constellations. I just remembered that there was a dragon, a tortoise, a bird and a tiger, and figured there had to be some connection."

Gingka took a deep breath. "So you're saying that we've got someone else's constellations in our blades?"

Madoka nodded, then shook her head. "You _might _do. I don't know, I haven't done enough research, so don't jump to conclusions. And anyway, it's a bit strange. They didn't call them constellations then. The beasts they had then were tied to the earth more than the stars. I can't find their names, though."

Another _bleep_ from her computer alerted the group to another incoming call. This one had a European time signature stamped in the corner.

"Hey, it's Excalibur!" Tsubasa exclaimed. "Good to see you guys!"

Julian Konzern sat tall and proud in the centre of the image, Klaus sat to his right and Sophie and Wales to his left. "Madoka. I trust you have already worked out what these things are."

"That's weird," Kyouya muttered. "How'd he know?"

"We've been on the line for a while," Sophie said. "Madoka accepted the call at the same time as Masamune's but she didn't realise we were here too so she didn't bring up our video. We heard you talking, we just couldn't see you."

Kyouya scowled. "I meant, how did you know about the weird stuff that's going on."

"He's Julian," Kenta hissed. "You know how top-of-the-range all his stuff is. I bet he knows almost as much as Madoka about this."  
Julian's chin came up proudly. "Maybe so, Kenta. But you are not the only people who have been visited by these otherworldly creatures."

"You too?" Kenta asked, eyes wide. "Then you really do know everything we know."

But Julian just smiled. "Actually, I know one thing more. My own resources revealed the origin of my own creature, but I suspect that things are different with you."

"We've got the dragon, the tiger, the bird and the tortoise, if that means anything to you," Madoka told him. "And whatever Masamune has."

"I've got another unicorn!" Masamune grinned. "Think about it! One Striker made me number one, so what's two Strikers gonna do?"

Julian shuddered at the bad grammar. "That is not a second Striker, Masamune. I do not know its name, but I know where it came from. It is a great and powerful beast from France. Why it chose someone like you, I have no idea, though, considering that its partner the griffon chose me. "

Before Masamune could launch a retort, Madoka interrupted. "Julian, you said you knew something we didn't. What was it?"

The captain of Team Excalibur nodded. "I have some contact information for you. It took all of my considerable resources to find even one of them, but you are fortunate. Wales is sending you the information now – call the number and explain what is going on. If anyone can help you, it will be them."

He looked as if he was about to say something else, but just then a burst of black-and-white static blanked out the screens and the sound system. Madoka scowled and hit the top of her laptop until the picture was restored, albeit with all of the colours wrong. Kenta was trying very hard not to laugh at the green-haired Wales, and Julian's own blonde hair had taken a decidedly purple hue. "Julian, the static from Spiral Core is getting worse. We're going to have to go now."

"Madoka," Julian called back just before Madoka could shut off the camera. "You need to be able to see those beasts. You won't know anything until you can see them."

"But..."

"I am certain you can think of something." Then Julian and Excalibur were gone, the screen only showing a blank-looking Masamune, a shocked Zeo and a Toby who had fallen asleep against the headboard. He jerked awake as Zeo elbowed him absently.

Madoka was frowning down at her hands. "But how am I meant to be able to make something to see something _I_ can't see?" she asked the room in general. "Something even my computer can't see?"

Tsubasa perched himself on the edge of Madoka's workbench. "What frequencies were you scanning on, Madoka?"

"All visual wavelengths, magnetic, electromagnetic, infra-red, ultraviolet..."

Tsubasa's eyes lit up at the same time as Toby's did, halfway around the world. "All _visual_ wavelengths, you say?"

"Yes, because... oh!"

The two silver-haired bladers were grinning at each other. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Tsubasa?" Toby asked.

"Echolocation?" Tsubasa responded. "If these creatures are really there in some form – which they must be, because Gale left scratches on my wall..."

"Gale?"

Tsubasa shrugged. "The bird. I don't want to call him "The Bird" all the time, and he tore through my room like a hurricane last night, so Gale is as good a name as any. As I was _trying _to say – if Gale and the others are real somehow, it shouldn't be too hard to set up some sort of visual representation of them on your laptop with the echo information. Then we can have a proper look at them."

Madoka's eyes glittered with the challenge. "Of course! But I'll need your help, guys – I need to run lots of tests on your beasts."

"Me and Shield will go first," Kenta volunteered, revealing that he too had decided on a name for his new beast. "He doesn't mind staying still for a long time and as Sagittario is a Stamina type you can get loads of information from him before I have to relaunch."

"Good," Tsubasa said. "Masamune, Zeo, Toby, if you can video any battles you have where Masamune's new beast comes out and send it to us, that would be very helpful. If we learn anything new, we'll tell you at once."

"Same here," Toby promised. "We can use the WBBA station here to take a look at Striker too. We'll get to the bottom of this, I know."

"We can use the WBBA station _in the morning,_" Zeo said firmly. "It's shut now, so we should get back to sleep."

"Seconded!" Toby cheered, smothering a yawn. "Night, guys. I mean, morning. Whatever."

Madoka laughed and turned the camera off. "Right, first of all I'm going to go and contact those people Julian was talking about. See if you can find your new beasts and get them to talk. Any information would be good. I'll be back as soon as I've sorted out these mysterious helpers."

Gingka nodded. "Let's go, Kyouya! Come on, Dragon, come on, Pegasus, let's show that silly tiger what we're made of!"

Kyouya's expression instantly lit up with the challenge of fighting an invisible constellation, and he sent the still-spinning Leone crashing into the side of Pegasus. "You can't beat me if you can't see me, Gingka! Leone, Thunder, attack!"

"That silly tiger is Thunder now?"

"He sounds like that, so I guess that's his name," Kyouya muttered, apparently embarrassed. "It's better than _Dragon, _anyway!"

"Is not! Go, Dragon! Take him out!"

Kenta looked up at the tall owner of Eagle - and now Gale - standing next to him. "Tsubasa, let's go and battle too!"

"You're on, Kenta!"

Madoka laughed quietly to herself as she made her way up the stairs. Really, her boys were never truly worried about anything, as long as they could keep on beyblading freely and happily. That was why she was going to do everything in her power to sort this whole mess out – before anything bad could possibly happen.


	4. Chapter 3 - Ampersand

_Yay for a chapter that actually has a proper plot beginning in it! I feel like I've been writing prologues up to now._

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Ampersand **

The faint hum of a spinning blade could be heard ringing through the whole workshop. It had been like this for a number of days now, with only short pauses for meals and longer for rest, and the occasional change in the pitch of the hum as the blade being examined was switched for another as the blader became weary.

At the moment, it was Kyouya's green bey that was spinning in the now-battered practice dish. Gingka was sitting next to Madoka, passing her various parts from her tool-box as required, and Tsubasa was asleep on the sofa. He had been the most recent tester for the slowly-developing echolocator, or the "how-to-see-something-we-can't-see-thing" (as Kenta had dubbed it) and had only just exchanged places with Kyouya after a number of hours. As for Kenta, he had decided to head home to get some food and sleep in a proper bed before coming back to take over from Kyouya in a few hours' time.

The echolocator was slowly taking form, and was now at the stage where occasional, fleeting glimpses of a hulking shape could be seen on the screen. Madoka reckoned that another day or so would fix it, if she could just find the right frequency of sound to give them enough detail.

In the meantime, all five of them were waiting for Madoka's – well, Julian's, technically – contact to show. According to Madoka, he was meant to arrive some time in the next two days, when transport could be arranged from China where he had been staying (or it might have been Russia; the phone reception hadn't been great).

"Kyouya, can you tell me what Thunder is doing?" Madoka pushed her glasses back to the top of her head and rubbed at her eyes tiredly. "I've got a vague shape, but I'm not sure if it's Thunder or the sofa."

Kyouya glanced up at his tiger and grinned. "He's sitting on his haunches, but he's got his head tilted to his left. I think he's watching the reflection from Tsubasa's hair-clip on the wall."

Madoka tightened one of the tiny screws in the circuit-board she had in her hand and squinted at the readout on her computer screen. "Ugh. It _was_ the sofa. Oh – wait, I had him!"

Immediately, Kyouya and Gingka were at her shoulders, eager to see if their experiment was finally working. "Yeah, there he is!" Kyouya exclaimed. "Right th- oh. He's gone."  
"You did it, Madoka!" Gingka was grinning. "Hey, Tsubasa! Wake up – Madoka's done it!"

"Huh?" Tsubasa sat up, blinking the sleep from his eyes. "What's that? You've fixed it?"

Madoka shook her head. "I _think_ we've got the frequency, but it disappeared real fast. We'll need to do loads more tests if we want to get it perfect. But it might be ready by tonight if I can just get all these parts welded together properly, you following me?"

"Good work, Madoka," Tsubasa said warmly. "I don't know what we'd do without you."

Just then, the computer bleeped with an incoming video-call from America. "Yo, Madoka!" Masamune grinned as she answered.

"How're you guys doing?" Toby asked, pushing Masamune away from taking up the whole of the screen. "Is that thing you were making to see the creatures ready yet, Madoka?"

"Nearly," Madoka began, but Zeo interrupted.

"We've got trouble," he said, eyes dark. "You remember those Starbreaker guys? Damian and Jack?"

Gingka shuddered. "How could we forget?" It had only been a little over a month since they had last come into conflict on board the floating city.

Zeo rubbed at his head. "Well, we ran across them not half an hour ago, and something weird is going on. We think that they might have these extra beasts too."

"What?" Tsubasa stood up and came over. "How do you know? Can you see them?"

"No," Zeo sighed. "But Masamune said that his new unicorn..."

"He's called Striker the Second!" Masamune interrupted. Zeo ignored him.

"Masamune said that his unicorn was charging at empty patches of air, and seemed to be hitting something. They were much stronger as well – even all three of us together couldn't do anything to Jack, let alone Damian, and Byxis was definitely being hit by something invisible – something _massive._ We had to run, and even then we only just about got away with our blades intact."

"So as soon as you work out that echolocation stuff, we could do with it," Toby got to the point much faster than either of his friends. "If we can't see what we're fighting, we don't have a hope."

Madoka had gone very pale. "So it wasn't just our friends who got them," she murmured. "If the other side has them as well, we need to get a move on."

"Oh, and something else," Masamune added. "You know that Jack's blade was sort of pinky-red last time? It's gone black. It looks really weird, and he doesn't look any better. I think that losing the Arrangement system might have scrambled his brains even more than they were in his battle against you, Tsubasa."

Tsubasa nodded, face grim. "Thank you for the information," he said. "We'll finish the system as quickly as we can and send you any software Madoka comes up with."

"Thanks." Toby seemed to breath a sigh of relief. "If guys like Damian and Jack have new, stronger blades with these invisible beasts, we could be in for trouble."

"We'll do everything possible," Madoka promised. "Just keep an eye out and don't do anything stupid. There should be someone arriving in the next couple of days who should be able to help explain just what is going on, and we'll call you as soon as we know anything else."

"Stay safe," Tsubasa added. Toby gave him a thumbs-up and ended the call before the Spiral Core static could break the line.

The room was silent for a long minute. Finally, Kyouya called Leone back to his hand and stomped off towards the stairs.

"Where're you going, Kyouya?" Gingka called after him.

"You saw Thunder. Now see if you can see the other three on the same frequency or whether we need different ones for each beast. We need to get a move on, so I'm going to find Kenta." And with that, Kyouya was gone.

Tsubasa smiled. "He does like to pretend that he doesn't care, doesn't he?" he commented to nobody in particular. Madoka rolled her eyes and turned back to the software package open on her screen, typing a few more numbers in.

"Gingka, could you launch for me? I'll try out this frequency with Dragon just to see if I can get a proper lock on him..."

.

"Aaaaand – got him!" Madoka's victorious cry was echoed by a cheer from Gingka. Several hours had passed since the call from Team Dungeon and the three in the basement workshop had been working hard ever since. Gingka was slightly concerned that neither Kyouya nor Kenta had reappeared, but he'd known both of them to get distracted for hours by a battle or two, so he wasn't too worried.

"Seriously?" Tsubasa asked, leaving Eagle spinning calmly in the middle of the floor and coming around to take a look at the computer screen. "Wow. That's really him. You see what I mean about those claws now, Gingka?"

Gingka leaned in to take a closer look at the picture and shivered. "He must've done some serious damage to your walls with those," he commented. Each of the talons were nearly two feet long.

Madoka smiled and stretched. "So we've got a sort-of picture of them," she said. "Now all I have to do is get the kinks out of the software and get this lot into a manageable order and we'll be able to use it properly." She indicated the tangle of wires, circuit-boards and pieces of metal that lay scattered across the whole of her workbench. Tsubasa winced.

"Will Zeo and the others have the equipment to make one of these?" he asked. Madoka shook her head.

"No, but I've had an idea, if you're following me. Once I've made one of these, I can easily make a couple more – I just need someone to take one over to America so that we can get a good look at what's happening with Starbreaker. That way, we'll have someone who knows how to use it over there, and it'll just make things quicker. I get the feeling that this should be cleared up as soon as possible."

Tsubasa nodded. "I don't mind going. Team Dungeon are nice guys, and I can report in to the Director at the same time. I'll sort out transport as soon as you think it'll be ready."

"Maybe... another two days? Just to get the kinks out?"

Another nod. "I'll ask Hikaru to book the flight."

The sound of the bell ringing in the upstairs shop at that moment distracted them all, and there was a rush for the stairs. Tsubasa got there first, thanks to his longer legs, and he bounded up the steps like some kind of antelope before skidding to a halt at the top, nearly blocking the view of Gingka and Madoka behind him, who leaned around his shoulders to see the person who had entered.

In fact, it wasn't one person. It was two.

The one in front was tall, with pale, silvery-grey hair that fell in soft peaks around his face, giving him a sophisticated look that matched his smart, black suit. Fierce purple eyes snapped away from the display of blades inside the glass cabinets to meet the astonished gazes of Tsubasa and the others. The second one, who had hung back to examine some of the launchers on show along the walls, had dark, blueish-black hair and eyes of a similar colour, and was dressed only slightly less formally. He, however, was smiling broadly as he spotted the incoming bladers.

They were young men, possibly in their mid-twenties, and both of them looked like they meant business. The first one stepped towards Tsubasa, hand outstretched as the silver-haired blader scrambled up the last few steps. "Gingka Hagane?"

Shocked into silence, Tsubasa could only shake his head mutely and gesture to Gingka, who dodged around his taller companion and gripped the hand of the man. "Hi! I'm Gingka. You must be the people from the... the..." Memory failing him, he turned to Madoka.

"Bladebreakers," she supplied, stepping forwards. "I'm Madoka, the one who contacted you? Thank you so much for coming, it's been getting more and more terrifying not knowing what we're up against, and stuff keeps happening that we just can't explain on our own."

"You're welcome," the second young man grinned, coming over. "It's always fun to come and help out new people. I'm Tyson – you spoke to me on the phone - and this guy here is Kai. He's not big on the whole talking thing, but he's probably the most knowledgeable person in the entire BBA if you want to talk about bit-beasts and the like."

"Well, I'm Madoka, this is Gingka and this is Tsubasa. There are a few more people around who want to talk to you, but they had to go off for a bit – they'll be back soon."

The one called Tyson nodded. "That's fine. We're here for as long as you need us."

"So what exactly happened?" his companion Kai asked, and both Tsubasa and Gingka launched into an explanation at exactly the same time. After a few seconds of chaos, Kai held up a single finger, quieting both the bladers almost instantly. "You – Tsubasa? Talk."

Tsubasa began again, starting with the strange lights in the sky and finishing with the news of Starbreaker's newest developments. "It's strange. Each of us individually can see the extra creatures in our blades, but no-one else can see them. Madoka's trying to work something out, but it's taking a while and it's not quite finished yet."

"It's nearly done," Madoka protested. "I've just got to weld it together and double-test it and then I'll be done."

Kai and Tyson exchanged glances. "I'm not so sure now," Tyson murmured. "I assumed – like Madoka and Julian, obviously – that they were our bit-beasts, but why are they only visible to one person?"

"Maybe the connection to the blade means that they can see everything in their own blade-space, but they don't have the ability to truly see bit-beasts, the same way that Hilary did a while ago?" Kai frowned. "There's only one way to find out. Who has these beasts?"

Gingka and Tsubasa raised their hands. "I've got a big blue dragon," Gingka said, and Tyson nodded. "I call him Dragon, because there's nothing else I can, really."

"And I've got a massive red bird," Tsubasa added. "I've called him Gale for now."

Kai nodded slowly. "It certainly sounds like Dragoon and Dranzer. Launch for us and call them out and we'll be able to tell."

"Let's go downstairs, then," Madoka suggested. "The dish is down there – oh! Can I offer either of you something to eat or drink?"

Kai shook his head, but Tyson grinned. "Thanks!"

"Madoka's cake is really good," Gingka told him as they made their way down the stairs. "You should try it. She says the secret ingredient is salt!"

"I've heard Hilary say that," Tyson agreed. "It's weird, isn't it?"

Gingka was already warming to this dark-haired young man with the brilliant smile. "Who's Hilary? You've mentioned her before."

"Friend of mine. She joined our team just after our first World Championship and she couldn't see bit-beasts then. But after a couple of weeks, she must've just got used to it or something, because now she can see them just fine. That might be what's happened here – though why you'd have our bit-beasts I have no idea."

"What's a bit-beast?"

Tyson blinked. "Um... it's the spirit that powers your bey. It's normally an animal of some sort, though I do know of one with a human form. They can use the elements to attack their opponent."

"Oh!" Gingka understood suddenly. "We call them constellations. They come from the stars. Mine's called Pegasus."

Tyson shook his head. "No, bit-beasts are found in nature, not the sky. Hmm. Hey, Kai, d'ya think they might be totally different things?"

"We'll see," was all his taciturn companion said, just as Madoka jumped down the steps, balancing a tray with a stack of plates and a big cake in the middle of it.

"Let me get all my stuff set up," she said, placing the tray on the crowded workbench and quickly connecting the echolocator up to to screen. "Gingka, you go first."

Gingka led the two newcomers over to the small practice dish set up on the floor of the shop and launched Pegasus into the middle. "I don't know if I can call out Dragon for certain," he began, but inside his head the blue dragon was already stirring, coiling and uncoiling along his whole snake-like body as he prepared for battle. Almost as soon as he finished a circuit of the dish to warm up, Dragon punched out of the centre of the bey that he had made his home, curling into the air in a writhing mass of blue neck and body and tail. From the soft gasp that Tyson gave, it was clear that he could see Dragon, and if the expression on his face meant anything, he recognised the beast.

"Dragoon," Tyson whispered.

"Tsubasa, you launch as well," Kai ordered, and Tsubasa obeyed almost without thinking. Kai had that sort of voice. A moment later, the older man nodded. "Yes. That's him alright. You can stop the blades now."

"Well, we can confirm that those are definitely our bit-beasts," Tyson sighed as Gingka and Tsubasa recalled their blades. "I just wish Dragoon would tell me what's going on."

"D-Dragoon?" Gingka asked, stumbling slightly on the odd pronunciation. "Is that his name?"

"Yes. You have my Dragoon, and Tsubasa has Kai's phoenix, Dranzer. They're two of the beasts that we call the Four Sacred Spirits, and from what you've said, your other two friends probably have my friends' beasts – Draciel, the turtle and Driger, the tiger."

"They all begin with D-R," Madoka commented as she saved the information from the echolocator to her computer. "Was that deliberate?"

Tyson laughed. "I don't know. Kai?"

"Those are the names they've had as long as they've lived, which is about as long as the Earth itself has existed," Kai explained. "They are the Four Sacred Spirits, the strongest four of the bit-beasts, each representing an element, a season and a compass mark. Working together, they are almost impossible to beat, though some very rare beasts have been able to challenge them."

Madoka's shoulders relaxed for the first time since the whole mess had begun, now that she knew what she was dealing with. "What about the others? And how did they get here, anyway?"

"I wish I knew," Tyson sighed. "Neither of them are speaking to us."

"What do you mean, _others_?" Kai asked, expression shrewd.

"We're not the only ones with these – these _bit-beasts_," Tsubasa said. "Masamune, one of our friends who's in America at the moment, has one, and Team Excalibur definitely have one as well."

Tyson and Kai exchanged a look. "Which ones?" Kai asked sharply.

"Um... Masamune had a unicorn," Gingka began.

"Easy," Tyson interrupted. "There's only one unicorn bit-beast. He's called Unicolyon, and he belongs to one of the members of the European champions, The Majestics."

"Did you say Team Excalibur?" Kai said suddenly. "Led by Julian Konzern?"

Madoka nodded eagerly. "Yes, that's them! Do you know them?"

"Only Julian, personally – remember, he put you in contact with us. The others I have heard of. I already know about their beasts, but at least they knew that they were bit-beasts right from the start."

This piece of information heralded a scowl from Tsubasa. "And he didn't think to tell us that he knew what they were? I knew there was a reason I didn't like him."

But Madoka had picked up something else that Kai had said. "Wait... you said _their beasts?_"

Now it was Kai's turn to look puzzled, at least as much as he could. "Of course. Julian is the current guardian of the greatest beast in all of Europe, Griffolyon, and he informed me that his tag team are currently in possession of the oldest of all the known bit-beasts, Seaborg."

"Two for one beast?" Tyson asked. Apparently this was news to him as well. "Well, I guess Seaborg _is_ pretty strong. Maybe two is better than one." He looked around. "So how many beasts do we know are... er... not with their original owners?"

Madoka started counting them off on her fingers. "There's Gingka, Tsubasa, Kenta, Kyouya, Julian, Sophie and Wales, Masamune... and apparently Jack and Damian from Starbreaker too."

"I haven't heard of the last two," Kai mused. "Do you have any..."

But at that exact moment, there was a loud bang from upstairs and a shout of "Gingka! Madoka! Tsubasa!" as someone raced into the shop, panic in his voice.

"Kenta!" Tsubasa barked, and leapt for the stairs, getting there before anyone else had even thought of moving. He almost collided with the green-haired boy who was trying to scramble down the stairs, and had to grab the bannister to prevent a tumble. "Kenta, are you alright? What's wrong?"

Kenta was very pale, trembling from head to foot as he looked down into the workshop. "Gi-Gingka," he stammered. "I-I... I just..."

"It's okay," Tsubasa said, putting a hand on his shoulder and leading him down to the bottom of the steps. "You're fine here. Just calm down and tell us what happened."

Kenta looked up into Tsubasa's calm, golden gaze and took a deep breath. "I was just coming over here through the park when... when that horrible Reiji guy just turned up and attacked me," he said, forcing the tremor out of his voice with difficulty. "Madoka, I think he's got one of the invisible beasts as well – something was hitting Sagittario that I couldn't see, and I thought he was going to destroy my blade again and... and who are you guys?" He had just noticed the newcomers.

Gingka took it on himself to introduce them. "Kenta, meet Tyson and Kai. Tyson, Kai, this is Kenta. He's the one with the tortoise – I mean, turtle... um, what was his name again?"

"Draciel," Tyson said immediately. "He's a true master of defence."

Kenta nodded. "He was protecting Sagittario from the worst of it, so I think he could see the other beast, but I couldn't. That's the only reason I got away with Sagittario in one piece." He held out his blade on a still-trembling hand, and they could all see the deep scratches on it. Madoka winced.

"So that makes another," Kai muttered. "That's ten in all."

Tyson was shaking his head. "It's too many, Kai. We should call in the others, and inform Mr Dickenson too. If Dragoon's leaving me, and _Dranzer's_ leaving _you, _then there's something massive going on here and I don't like it one bit."

Madoka ran five fingers through her hair. "So you've no idea what it was that attacked you, Kenta?"

The green-haired boy shook his head. "None at all. Couldn't see it."

"If you'd filmed it, maybe we could have made it out," Tyson pointed out, and Madoka's expression suddenly lit up.

"Oh! Team Dungeon!"

Gingka blinked. "What about them?"

She turned to him, infectious excitement in her eyes. "I told them to film any battles they had – what if they've got footage of that battle with Starbreaker? Then we could work out which ones they have too!"

Gingka's grin widened with every word she said. "Excellent! We should call them straight away!"

Tsubasa was way ahead of him, already over by the computer and clicking through to connect the group in Japan to Team Dungeon in America. "Masamune? You there?"

"Heya, guys!" Masamune appeared on their screen almost instantly. "That was fast! You're finished already?"

"Nearly," Madoka told him. "We need your help. Remember I told you to video every battle you had to see if we could pick up something on the scanners later? Do you have a video of the battle you had with Starbreaker?"

Masamune frowned. "Um... I think that's on Zeo's camera," he said. "He's just gone out to get lunch and I'm not sure how to use it."

"I can!" Toby piped up from just off-screen. From the sound of it, he was on the opposite side of the table that Masamune was sitting at.

"That's brilliant," Madoka sighed in relief. "Can you send it to us somehow? I've got the contacts from Julian here, Tyson and Kai-" here she pointed them out "-and they can see all of these _bit-beasts_, which is what they're called, apparently."

"Oh, I've heard of them," said Toby's voice, still off-screen. "They're from the first generation of blading – they're really cool and really powerful! Is that what Masamune's got in his blade?"

"Yes," Kai interrupted. "We need to see which ones have... transferred to new guardians."

"I'll have a go," Masamune promised, and disappeared from the screen. They could still hear him talking with Toby from just out of shot, apparently trying to work out how to get the video off of the camera and onto the computer in a workable format. After a few minutes, his black-and-white head popped back into frame. "There!" he declared proudly. "Should be arriving any second."

At exactly that second, Madoka's email pinged. "Wow!" Tyson laughed. "When I'm talking to Mr Dickenson and he emails me it always takes about an hour or so to arrive!"

Madoka ignored him and opened the email, bringing up the video and running it through the echolocation program just to check that she couldn't pick up anything that way. Gingka, Kenta and Tsubasa leaned in closer, trying to see if there was anything out of the ordinary that was clearly visible.

In terms of giant mythical beasts, they were sadly disappointed. The echolocator couldn't work on a video, as it wasn't picking up clear enough signals. However, it was more than evident that Jack and Damian were both considerably stronger than they had been when Gingka and his friends had last met them. Their blades tore into those of Team Dungeon with hardly any effort, causing horrendous damage with every strike.

Tsubasa heard a low, guttural snarl from behind him and turned to see an absolutely furious Kai. "I can see them," the young man growled. _"Both_ of them. We've got more of a problem than we thought. You see them, right, Tyson?"

The blue-haired man nodded. "That's Burning Cerberus there on the left. I never thought he would be one to change sides."

"He's not so much of a problem," Kai muttered. "It's the one on the right I'm worried about."

Tyson gave him a look of absolute shock. "_You're_ worried? Kai, you're never worried, what's wrong?"

"The one on the right, Tyson. Look at it. You've seen it before, just once." Kai's eyes were dark and full of memories.

Tyson squinted at the screen. Suddenly horror flooded his expression and he swore loudly. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no... _anything_ but that."

Kai nodded grimly. "You've got it, Tyson." He turned to the puzzled bladers around him. "The beast that the guy with the green coat is wielding is the most dangerous bit-beast in the world. It has never been truly defeated in battle, and the one time it _was_ defeated it took all of the Four Sacred Spirits working as one to beat it."

"Wh-what is it?" Madoka asked.

"It's very similar to the beast inside Tsubasa's blade," Kai said softly. "Its name is Black Dranzer."


	5. Chapter 4 - Challenger

**Chapter 4 – Challenger **

The workshop rang with silence at Kai's words. Tsubasa could hear his heart beating in his ears. "B-Black Dranzer?" he asked, forcing the majority of the tremor out of his voice. "Like a... a dark version of Dranzer?"

Gingka looked at his friend and saw how pale he was. It only took another moment to realise what Tsubasa was thinking of; his own Darkness-ruled battles which had caused so much damage. If anything could scare Tsubasa, it was the threat of losing control of himself. Tsubasa had always prided himself on his self-discipline, so to lose that was to lose what made Tsubasa who he was. Were they going to have to face the same thing again?

But Kai shook his head. "Black Dranzer is based on Dranzer in name and form only," he said. "Yes, it is a dark bit-beast, but Dranzer was not corrupted to make Black Dranzer, if that is what you're worried about. Black Dranzer was made by human hands, unlike all the other bit-beasts, so it is quite different."

Gingka saw Tsubasa's shoulders relax and breathed his own sigh of relief.

"So what do we do?" Madoka asked. "From what you've said, I guess it's not a good thing that this... Black Dranzer thing is out."

"Definitely not," Tyson answered, grim-faced. "This is more serious than we thought."

"We need information," Kai said. "Certainly more than that video."

"We can go and find him again," Masamune volunteered. "I mean, yeah, they were strong, but if we can just get one of them on their own I'm sure we can do something to get the info you need."

"No!" Kai's response was immediate. "No. Black Dranzer is far too dangerous to be faced with only one bit-beast, especially one like Unicolyon."

"Unicolyon? Is that his name?"

"Yes," Tyson explained. "He belongs to a member of the European team from our generation. He's very strong, but he wouldn't stand a chance against Black Dranzer – and then there's Burning Cerberus there as well."

Kai frowned, running a hand absently through his hair. "We can't do anything until we know how it got out and how our bit-beasts left us," he sighed. "Is there anyone who could get to America in the next twenty-four hours?"

Tsubasa's eyes lit up. "Yes!" he exclaimed. "Hikaru's booked me on a flight tonight – I can be there by tomorrow morning, or whatever time it will be there."

Kai looked him up and down. "You have Dranzer, so I'm inclined to trust you," he said. "He'll look after you, and he'll be a good defence against Black Dranzer, but it won't be enough. You'll need someone else, someone very powerful."

A long silence fell as all of them racked their brains to think of some way they could find another person to fly. None of the three bit-beast-holders in the room could do it – the WBBA only had one long-term visa for flights to the USA available, as the Director was currently there.

"We can't go," Tyson said, just to break the silence. "For one thing, we don't have bit-beasts. It has to be someone with a very strong one that we can trust to be meticulous with data collection."

"We can call Max and ask him to meet them," Kai suggested. "But again, he doesn't have Draciel."

"Do we know anyone else in the States?"

"No-one who definitely has a bit-beast. If The Majestics have lost theirs, who's to say that the PPB All-starz won't have lost theirs too?"

Madoka was struggling to follow the conversation. "Um, The Majestics?"

Tyson waved a hand absentmindedly at her. "Oh, Kai mentioned them earlier. They're the old European team, and the PPB All-starz are the old American team. They're..."

But he was cut off by a sudden change in Kai's expression. "The Majestics," he said, and his eyes were almost dreamy. "Konzern!"

With one word, the atmosphere in the room changed. Of course. Julian was very rich, and travelled all over the world for business deals. Better still, he had a private plane and runway. But even higher up the list was the fact that he had Destroyer – and now the powerful bit-beast Griffolyon.

"Perfect," Madoka whispered, already pulling up a new video-call screen. "Why didn't we think of it before?"

"Think of who before?" Julian asked, answering immediately. "Ah! I see your guests have arrived. Hello, Hiwatari, Granger."

"Konzern," Kai responded, offering a slight dip of his head in acknowledgement. "How much do you know about all this?"

"Nothing more than when we last spoke. Finding information has been difficult; we do not know where to start looking. Sophie and Wales have gone to China to find out if their team knows anything."

Kai seemed to be hiding a smile. "Then tell them to contact Ray. We might need him." Any trace of a smile vanished. "Julian, can you get to the USA in the next twenty-four hours?"

Julian blinked. "Yes, but why?"

"Black Dranzer. It's out, and it's linked itself to one of the bladers out there – what was his name, Madoka?"

"Jack," the mechanic supplied. "And Damian has that... um, what did you call it? Burning Cerberus."

Julian's expression told them that the European blader had not forgotten his last encounter with the tremendously powerful leader of Team Starbreaker – and that the name _Black Dranzer_ meant something to him as well. "Are you sure?"

"We've seen the video," Tyson replied. "It's definitely those two."

"We need information on both of them," Kai interrupted. "We need to know how controlled they are, how powerful, how much spin, the damage they can do, whether they are becoming more or less powerful the longer they spend away from their true owners... the lot. Tsubasa is going there too, and we'll contact Max so you won't be working alone."

"Hah!" Julian's usual pride reared up in his face. "I'm strong enough. I don't need help just for _information gathering._"

Kai scowled. "Nevertheless, three pairs of eyes – or six, actually, as you'll be helping Masamune and his friends – are better than one."

"Fine..."

Kai stepped back, allowing Madoka to lean into the conversation again. "We'll send the precise destination as soon as we've got the all-clear from the Director and Hikaru," she promised. "Please, Julian, don't do anything daft. We've seen the videos, and they're _strong._"

"I've seen what Black Dranzer can do," Julian told her. "I know how strong it is." A smile twisted one corner of his mouth. "I won't underestimate Team Starbreaker again."

Then he was gone, the video-call winking out like a candle.

"So, um..." That was Toby, who had come round the table so that he could look into the camera at his end. "Have you got any idea when your imaging thing will be ready, Madoka? I mean, could Tsubasa bring it with him?"

Madoka winced and shook her head. "No," she sighed. "But I can send you some software so that you can track the blades and their power and stuff. You won't be able to physically see the bit-beasts, but you'll be able to see all the effects they're having. I'll get it fixed as soon as possible and send it to you straight away when it's done, though."

Toby nodded. "Right. That's something, at least. C'mon, Masamune. Let's get over to the Dungeon Gym and get Coach to fix our blades up quick. We'll leave a note for Zeo or something."

"Hang on," said Tyson, a slight frown appearing on his face. "Did you say _Zeo_?"

"Yeah, Zeo Abyss. He's the third member of Team Dungeon."

Tyson laughed. "It's just funny, that's all. The real owner of Burning Cerberus is called Zeo Zaggart."

"Zeo _Ziggurat?_" Toby's eyes suddenly went wide and frightened.

"No, _Zaggart._ His dad was a scientist-doctor sort of person. It's complicated. Hey, Kai, maybe we should look him up too. He's probably wondering about Burning Cerberus." Kai ignored him. "Fine then."

"We'll follow Tsubasa later," Gingka promised. "Just as soon as Madoka's finished her bit-beast-world imaging thing and Hikaru can get us some more visas. Just stay safe."

"Will do!" And the other video-call ended as suddenly as the first, just as a burst of Spiral Core static shattered the connection.

Tsubasa took a deep breath. "I should go and pack," he muttered. "Madoka, how soon can you have the software burned onto a disc for me?"

"Fifteen minutes?" she hazarded. "Here, give me Eagle – I'll run a scan on him whilst you're packing and check he's in perfect condition."

Tsubasa's face relaxed into a true smile. "Thanks, Madoka. You're amazing." Then he disappeared up the steps, and moments later they all heard the shop-bell ring as he went out. Madoka stretched and rolled her shoulders.

"Right," she said. "We've got a lot of work to do, so let's get a move on, shall we?"

.

_Beep-beep. Beep-beep._

"Oh! Guys, it's Tsubasa!"

It was the following morning, and all of the bladers apart from Kai were back in the basement. Pegasus was the blade taking the dish at the moment Madoka shouted, signalling that they finally had contact from America after a less-than-restful night.

"Madoka, I can't talk for long," Tsubasa said as soon as she established the connection. "That static from Spiral Core is way stronger here, and I've already lost two calls before they even connected." Indeed, the picture was flickering. "I've no idea how Masamune and the others managed to have such a strong connection. Is there any more news?"

Madoka shook her head tiredly. "No, nothing. We've been trying to work out how the bit-beasts were separated from their original masters and why, but I'm just hitting brick walls all over the place. What about at your end?"

"Not much," Tsubasa admitted. "I've met up with Masamune, Julian and the others – oh, and Yuu's insisted on coming with us, as he was over here for extra training. We're just about to go and meet up with Max and then we're going to try and get that information back to you as soon as possible."

"Okay," Madoka said. "Send it by email, though – don't try calling us like this unless it's an emergency. You're already breaking up and I can barely hear you."

"Fine." Tsubasa's voice was getting more and more distorted by the second. "Tell me as soon as you know anything use-" He was cut off in the middle of his sentence and the picture went dead.

Madoka sighed and rubbed at her eyes. It had been a very long and tiring night, with little sleep and less rest as the heat and the static prickled through their dreams. Despite all their best efforts, they had achieved little more than they had in the past few days, all of them completely stumped by the question of _why_ the bit-beasts had left in the first place. Kai's theory was that they had known something about Black Dranzer, but as Tyson said, why didn't they stay with their masters who actually knew how to use them properly?

In the meantime, Madoka had been trying to work on a way to get the bit-beasts to become visible without having to look at a computer the whole time. The imaging technology was temperamental at best, and didn't seem to like giving clear, focused images that she could use to build a database to work from. But even with all these setbacks, Madoka was determined. She had to do whatever she could to help, no matter what. She knew the way things worked – the older generation gave hints and tips, her boys battled it out with the bad guys, and she stood there in the middle with all the information they would need at her fingertips, ready to help them at a moment's notice. That was her place, and she was proud to have it because they respected her for it. Even Tyson had smiled when she had explained the extent of her job to him the night before at dinner.

Talking of Tyson, Kai was late. He had said he had someone else to find, someone who might be able to give them another clue, but had promised – wait, no he hadn't. It was _Tyson_ who had said Kai would be back before lunch.

Somehow, Madoka got the impression that Kai didn't like to tell people where he was going.

Just as she thought that, a hand tapped her on the shoulder, and she spun round in shock. Kai himself stood there right behind her, a rather shorter young man next to him. The newcomer had short brown hair and very thick glasses, and was smiling nervously.

"This is Kenny," Kai said shortly. "He was – is – our mechanic. He invented the Hard Metal System that our generation uses."

"Hi," Kenny ventured. "Um... you must be Madoka. Kai said you needed help with something to do with bit-beasts and visualisation?"

"Yeah," Madoka said enthusiastically. Now she had a real expert on her side! "I've been trying with echolocation but it's just not good enough to get a proper image that I can then project – I've got a little bit, but it's not tested yet. And I need to know more about the way that bit-beasts are joined to their masters."

"Well, I've been thinking on the way over and perhaps we should call one of my colleagues in America, Emily. She's helped me on several occasions; I'm sure she'd be able to come up with some ideas..."

From the side of the dish, Gingka wiped a hand across his forehead, realising just how warm the room was with so many people in it. "Hey, Madoka? Do you need all of us in here? It's getting really hot and I want ice-cream."

"You sound like Yuu," she scolded absently. "No, I only need one person to stay to keep spinning here – Kenta, I think it's your go."

Gingka smiled tiredly. "Okay, Galaxy Dragoon. Let's get out of here."

Everyone stared at him. "Excuse me, _what?_" Tyson spluttered after a couple of seconds. Gingka shrugged.

"Kenta and I were talking about it last night, and Kyouya agrees with us. Our blades are still the same, but they don't have the same beasts in them as before. So it would make sense to change the name of the blade for a bit. I figured we should combine the bit-beasts' real names with the ones we came up with so that we don't get confused, but that didn't work for Dragoon so I sort of adapted it."

"Galaxy Dragoon, huh?" Kenny was grinning at Tyson. "That brings back memories."

"That was Dragoon Galaxy anyway," Tyson muttered.

Kyouya stood up, stretching. "If I'm not needed, I'll go out too," he informed the room in general.

"Okay." Madoka was already concentrating on the data that she was showing to Kenny. Then she seemed to remember something. "Oh! Gingka, Kyouya, if you go out, would you do a test-run on this, please?" She handed Kyouya a large, heavy box with what looked like a computer screen on the top of it. "This is the prototype of that imaging technology. I tried to make it portable, but..." She shrugged helplessly. "Um, that didn't work out so well. Could you perhaps test-drive it in the park or something for me?"

"Sure!" Gingka said happily. "You know I'll battle Kyouya any time!"

Kyouya's eyes sharpened at the challenge. "You and your _Galaxy Dragoon_ or whatever you're calling it are no match for Thunder Leone." At the single raised eyebrow he got from Kai, Kyouya scowled. "Leone is a much better name than Driger."

"I know at least two people who would disagree with you," Kai said mildly, and then went back to watching Kenny and Madoka get to work.

"C'mon, Kyouya. Let's go!"

The two clattered away up the stairs, and the room immediately seemed calmer. Three highly-strung, powerful bladers, two mechanical geniuses and two erstwhile World Champions did not make for a peaceful working environment.

.

"Go, Thunder Leone!"

"Take him down, Galaxy Dragoon!"

It was weird, calling a different name to usual, but it definitely helped the bladers to control both beasts. Gingka and Kyouya had been battling in the public dish in the park for about quarter of an hour in this particular round, having each lost a number of rounds previously due to lack of control of their bit-beasts.

"Whilst it's still I'm fine!" Gingka shouted across to Kyouya. "But as soon as I ask him to do something, he just – whoa! Steady, Dragoon! Slow down, Pegasus. Control, then speed!"

"You're just not practised enough!" Kyouya shot back, and sent the newly christened Thunder Leone racing down the slope towards its opponent. Unfortunately, as soon as he hit the bottom of the dish, he found that he too was having difficulties getting the two beasts in his blade to decide what to do. Leone wanted to stand his ground in defence and then attack full force. Driger, on the other hand, wanted to race off at the speed of sound and attack like lightning-strikes from every possible angle. The conflict made his blade slow and sluggish to respond as Kyouya automatically gave more support to his original constellation.

Gingka had the opposite tactic, and was allowing Dragoon to attack with his own wind-based power. But this too was backfiring as Pegasus was blown away from the dish and any possibility of helping time after time by the powerful whirlwinds. Whilst Madoka's imaging technology was working reasonably well, only one of them could use it at a time, and it still wasn't very clear.

All in all, it was a horrible mess.

"Oh _dear._"

The voice was vaguely familiar – hollow and drawling. Gingka's eyes hardened as he recalled his blade and looked to the side of the dish. "_Reiji,_" he spat. "So it really was you."

"How _wonderful _to see you, Gingka." The sarcasm dripped from Reiji's voice like poison. "And Kyouya too – I never did get a chance to see you tremble with fear before me in Battle Bladers, did I?"

Kyouya rolled his eyes. "Are you still hung up on that?" he groaned. "Seriously, that was a _year_ ago. Dark Nebula doesn't even exist any more."

"So?" Reiji's head tilted to the left to an impossible angle. "I can still have fun here destroying you without needing to be part of the organisation. Besides, your blading is a disgrace – it would be almost too kind to put you out of your misery." A sharp click told them that the owner of Poison Serpent had just locked his bey into his launcher and was preparing to fire. "I'm going to enjoy this."

.

The group in the basement had worked their way through many ideas over the course of the hours since Gingka and Kyouya had left, eventually assisted by Kenny's friend Emily, a young red-haired woman who attempted to video-call them but was cut off multiple times by the increasing static in the atmosphere. Eventually, she decided to send them emails instead, which at least didn't get corrupted by the influence of Spiral Core.

Considering how much of an effect it was having on their work, it was a very long time before any of them came up with the answer.

"Are you sure?" Madoka asked Kenny, who shrugged.

"Things would be a lot easier if Dizzi was still around," he grumbled. "But no, she went off somewhere too." At the puzzled look from Madoka, he explained "Dizzi is – _was – _my bit-beast, but she was an analysis beast more than anything so she could have got loads more data on the bit-beasts than we can. But I... yeah, I think that we might have cracked it."

Madoka's shoulders relaxed. "Oh, _good,_ "she sighed. "The sooner we can get this cleared up, the better."

"I'll send Emily a message and see what she thinks," Kenny said, already typing. Tyson leaned over his shoulder.

"So that's it?" he asked.

"It makes sense," Kai murmured, checking the readouts from the computer screen. "The timing is a bit awkward, but maybe it needed time to gather strength."

"There's still holes in the theory," Madoka protested. "But it's a start." Her email pinged. "Oh! Yes, Emily's been running some scans through the last week's satellite images and she says there were definite surges that corresponded exactly with the time that the boys saw the bit-beasts for the first time, and look! Bigger ones just before, and precisely localised!"

Kenny exchanged glances with Kai and whistled. "I think we've got it," he said.

.

_Sheesh,_ Gingka thought to himself. _Either I've forgotten how tough Reiji was or he's got a whole lot better than he was the last time I fought him..._

It was not an easy battle by any stretch of the imagination. Even with Madoka's imaging screen in front of him, reacting to the explosive movements of Reiji's dangerous blade was difficult. Reiji's new beast was a huge bird much like Dranzer, but was a blueish colour instead of the fierce red of the phoenix. It was vicious to boot; Gingka could feel the thin slices across his face dripping blood, as if steel-tipped feathers had been slashed against his skin. It hadn't been feathers though. It had been nothing more than the wind, shaped into a blade and wielded to terrible effect by the bit-beast he was facing. Dragoon had swirled around him in a protective vortex after the first couple of attacks, using wind to deflect the wind, but that left Pegasus to face Serpent and the bit-beast alone.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Reiji laughed, his voice high and cracked. "I've been looking forwards to this so much since we last met, Gingka! This time, I'm going to make you _scream._"

"Not likely!" Gingka responded hotly, knowing that the best way to throw Reiji off was to remain confident in his own abilities and those of his constellation (and now his bit-beast too). "You still haven't learnt what real beybattles are about, and as long as you don't know that, you can't overcome my spirit!"

But Reiji just laughed. "You can't even see it, Gingka. I have _much_ more power than I did the last time we fought. You can't get me with your little tricks this time, and I'm going to make sure that I leave you broken this time. I'll shred your blade to pieces with my new falcon!"

Oh, so it was a _falcon._ That was interesting. Gingka glanced at Kyouya, who was watching from the side of the dish, and Kyouya nodded. They would report that back to Kai and the rest – they'd know which beast it was, and that would be one more piece of information to add to their gradually growing collection. Gingka wasted a precious moment to wish that he knew _right now_ what was going on, but then Reiji sent Poison Serpent on a direct collision course with Galaxy Dragoon and Gingka had to swerve out of the way or suffer huge damage from the aggressive barrage attack. Irritated, he commanded Pegasus to soar up high, avoiding the snapping snake and the screaming falcon by veering irregularly from side to side.

He had won himself a couple of seconds of breathing space before Poison Serpent could catch up with him, and he used them to rack his brains to think of some way out of this mess. Pegasus could overcome Serpent alone easily, but with the big falcon in the way it was hard. For one thing, both the falcon and the snake seemed to be entirely focused on destruction, whether of the blader or the blade, and that made them both more dangerous than any normal opponent. Worse, Pegasus was relying on Madoka's imaging technology as much as Gingka was. Gingka was fairly certain that his constellation could see both of Reiji's beasts, but he was following Gingka's directions and Gingka could only see Dragoon, Pegasus and Serpent without the echolocator.

But if that was true, then surely Reiji...

Suddenly, Gingka knew what he had to do. It should have been obvious from the beginning, but he had been too tied up in trying to stay safe and unharmed to realise that he had a huge advantage over Reiji. As long as he didn't let the other boy know that Dragoon was there, a surprise attack would wipe him out in a single shot.

Mentally commanding the beasts was harder than shouting orders, but Gingka could just about manage it by getting Pegasus to relay the plan to Dragoon. The blue dragon nodded once in agreement, and then slowly uncoiled from his place protecting Gingka.

Instantly, the wind from the falcon's wings crashed against him with the force of a blizzard. His headband was sliced in half by the suddenly-renewed attack, and the tiny cuts reopened as those steely blades of air whipped past his body. But this was the only way, he told himself as his red hair tumbled into his eyes, blown about in the hurricane. This was the only way to catch the cunning Reiji off-guard, the only way to defeat the bit-beast and the constellation that were working together through their shared desire to cause as much damage to the opponent as possible. As long as Dragoon and Pegasus would just stick to their respective roles and not _both_ try to be the hero...

"Pegasus, _Star Booster Attack!"_

Serpent reared up as the winged horse plunged towards him, but he wasn't the true aim of the attack. Pegasus struck the falcon head-first, breaking its attention and its attack cycle, and as the wind died so did the falcon's advantage over the winged horse as the two crashed to the the ground. Now there was just Serpent to deal with.

As the huge snake lunged at Pegasus, fangs glittering, Dragoon launched himself forwards, tackling the constellation to the earth with his weight. It wasn't as effective as Gingka had hoped – Serpent seemed to be slipping through Dragoon's coils far more easily than he should – but it had the desired effect in the end. With both constellation and bit-beast grounded and overpowered, Reiji's blade somersaulted gracelessly out of the dish, tumbling to a stop by the snake-like boy's feet as Gingka's own blade swept softly back to his hand.

Reiji shuddered from head to foot and dropped to one knee, his hair hanging limply over his eyes and hiding his expression. "How could you withstand all those attacks?" he whispered, voice cracking with distress. "I had two beasts and you only had one – surely Pegasus isn't _that_ strong? And how did he manage to side-swipe Serpent like that?"

Gingka pushed his hair behind his ears, ignoring how amused Kyouya looked at his appearance. "You always underestimate your opponents, Reiji. That's why I could beat you. You still haven't learnt to truly see what is going on in a battle."

"But..."

Whatever Reiji had been about to say was cut off by the blare of Gingka's mobile phone ringing.

"Hello?"

"Gingka, you need to get back here, _now._" It was Madoka, sounding both excited and scared at the same time. "We think we've worked out how the bit-beasts turned up – and what that means."

Gingka nodded, forgetting that she couldn't see him. "We'll be there in five minutes." He ended the call. "Kyouya, let's go – they've worked it out.

The two left the park at a sprint, leaving behind a shivering and utterly confused Reiji.

.

"I can't believe we didn't think of it before," Tsubasa said. He had braved the Spiral Core static to answer the video-call from Japan, revealing that Tyson's friend and team-mate Max, blonde-haired, blue-eyed and full of smiles, had joined the group. The American group were in the main room of the Dungeon Gym, which they seemed to be using as a base. They made for quite an impressive sight, what with three World Champions, one semi-finalist, the European champion, the one-time owner of what had effectively been the creator of perpetual motion and an erstwhile two-time champion of the world. Despite that, they were all listening with rapt attention to Madoka as she explained the findings of the research group.

"It's so simple and so obvious," she agreed. "That's why we didn't spot it – it's just become part of everyday life already, are you following me?"

Gingka frowned at her. "So... so you're telling me that this is all the fault of the Spiral Core? All of it?"

"Pretty much," Emily said – she had finally managed to get her video to work without too much interference, and joined the conference as soon as she could. "The energy of Spiral Core was enough to not only wake Black Dranzer from its dormant state, but also weaken the bonds between blader and bit-beast. As time went on, the static energy gathered in certain areas and eventually started to cause surges – you've seen them on the video calls. One of the biggest ones must have ripped the bit-beasts away from their owners."

Madoka nodded. "That would explain why all of them appeared at about the same time," she said.

"And it certainly explains _how_ they got here." Tsubasa added. "The thing is, it doesn't explain _why_ they chose to go and find new bearers rather than staying with their original owners."

"I've got a good idea about that," Kai said solemnly. "I think that it's Black Dranzer again."

There was the momentary pause that always seemed to follow mention of the dark bit-beast's name before Julian said "And why would you say that?"

"Easy," Kai sighed. "Black Dranzer wants energy or power or whatever you want to call it for its own destructive plans. If I know anything about Black Dranzer, it's that it only wants to be the most powerful being in the world – which for it, means that it is the _only_ being in the world It will destroy everything to get its way. And where's the greatest source of destructive power in the world at the moment?"

"Spiral Core," Tyson said bitterly, seeing where Kai was going.

"But... but the Spiral Core's energy was taken out into space!" Gingka protested. "I had to do it, because otherwise the whole planet would have blown up!"

Kai shook his head. "You took most of the energy, yes, Gingka, but not all of it. And remember, Spiral Core had been active and flying around the world for a long time before you took all the energy up into space. There was enough residue to make a big effect – all the static is just the surface of it. Worse, the Core itself sank, didn't it?"

"Yeah..."

"It'll go looking for it," Kenny said softly. "Won't it, Kai?" The silver-haired man nodded.

"If Black Dranzer gets enough power from the residual radiation to find the Core, then it'll become invincible," Emily reported, looking up from her research. "We have to stop it before it can get any stronger."

"The Sacred Spirits will be able to force it back," Kai said. "If they can beat the blade, then I can take it and seal it away properly. The Spirits should be able to help me put a binding on Black Dranzer as well, to prevent this from happening again. That's why I think they chose other bladers – bladers who have already fought against the Spiral Core, those who have the most experience with that particular power, despite not having enough experience with the bit-beasts themselves."

Emily looked dubious. "There isn't much time, though," she said. "The longer that Black Dranzer is out, the harder it will be to defeat it, because it'll absorb all the radiation from the Core that is just hanging around that it can. There's going to be a point in the not-too-distant future when it will be nigh-on impossibly to beat, and that's _before_ it finds the Core itself."

Gingka whistled. "Then we need to get a move on. Tsubasa, Masamune, you'll need to step up the search. Kyouya, Kenta and I will get to you as soon as we can."

"And be careful," Kenny said. "There's some evidence that there's some bit-beasts just floating around out there without bladers to attach themselves to. If so, Black Dranzer will probably go after them too and swallow their power. You'll have to be powerful _and_ clever to get through this one."

Tsubasa's eyes hardened. "Then we will do whatever we must," he promised. "When Gingka's father took over as the Director of the WBBA he made it a priority to protect bladers from being controlled and taken the wrong paths by powerful constellations like L-Drago – or bit-beasts, I suppose. I know we can count on their full support."

Gingka looked around at all of the people in the workroom, and then at the computer to see the strained, worried faces of his friends on the far side of the world, all of them absolutely determined to see this through and to protect the world one more time, as they always had and always would. "Let's get on with it, then," he said. "If what the research group is saying is true, we don't have much time before Black Dranzer is powerful enough to destroy everything we've ever known."


	6. Chapter 5 - Birds Of A Feather

**Chapter 5 – Birds Of A Feather**

"Well, that's that then," said Tsubasa, closing the connection and looking around at the group collected in the Dungeon Gym. "This is worse than we thought."

Toby's eyes glittered strangely in his suddenly-pale face. "I know how strong Spiral Core was. I know what strength it took to defeat it when it was only a passive power... wh-when I was just keeping Tempo spinning with it, not attacking. I can't..." He stopped and took a deep breath, steadying himself. "I can't even imagine what it would be able to do if a bey was using that power aggressively."

"You... you can remember it?" Masamune looked shocked. Toby nodded silently. "You... you never said before."

"We saw what it can do," Tsubasa told Toby. "It can take out cities with a single strike. It turned mountains to ash and burned fathoms-deep lakes dry."

"I don't have a clue what Black Dranzer is capable of," Max murmured. "I've never seen it in full battle. All I know is that it could easily defeat four of the most powerful bladers in America at once, and held its own against the combined force of three of the Sacred Spirits as well. Goodness only knows what it could do in the physical world." He trailed off, eyes downcast.

"Then we've got to stop it." Yuu's eyes were uncharacteristically solemn. "I don't want anything else to wreck the fun we have blading. Me and Libra will do whatever it takes."

"It'll be dangerous," Max warned. "I've seen the videos from your World Championships, and that Jack guy, the one with Black Dranzer? He's vicious. It's been years since I've seen a blade cause so much damage to a stadium – or a blade. He's a dangerous opponent."

Yuu shrugged. "I know," he said, and suddenly he grinned. "I _was_ in Dark Nebula, y'know."

It was Tsubasa's turn to smile. "He's got a point, Max. Yuu's a lot stronger than people give him credit for. He's beaten Gingka before. He can take care of himself, I'm sure."

Max nodded. "Then let's get moving. We've got a pair of runaway bit-beasts to get back to their masters."

"Toby, Zeo and I can take the west side of the city," Masamune suggested. "You four can take the east side. They'll probably have a hideout somewhere."

Tsubasa shook his head. "No, that's not a good idea. You, Toby and Zeo know this city really well – the rest of us are just visitors. We'd get lost. You come with me and Julian, and Yuu and Max can go with Toby and Zeo. That way, there's someone who knows the neighbourhood in each group."

"Good plan," Julian agreed. "Let's get to work."

.

"Oh, I hope they're all okay," Kenta muttered to himself as the plane to the United States took off from the runway. Unfortunately, he was sitting next to sharp-eared Kyouya, who heard everything.

"Quit worrying," he snarled. "We've beaten both of them before, and even if they have got extra beasts, so have we. I'm not going to lose to a bunch of weirdos like them, not with my Leone."

"You're really strong, though," Kenta pointed out. "You and Gingka and Yuu and Tsubasa were all in the World Championships, like Masamune and Julian and Zeo, and Toby's meant to be one of the best bladers in the world too. I didn't even qualify." He looked down at the floor of the plane. "What am I doing here?"

"Helping," Gingka said, kneeling up on his seat to look over the back of it at his two rivals and friends. "You've got one of the Four Sacred Spirits, which means you're – what'd Kai say?"

"We're all important to the mission," Kyouya growled. "If Black Dranzer can beat three of the Spirits, then we'll need all of them."

"Yeah," Gingka agreed, smiling kindly. "Just do your best, Kenta. I know you're good, and I know you'll never give up. So let's just get there and deal with this horrible mess..."

.

The warehouse was cool and dark, and completely devoid of Damian or Jack.

"Well, it was a good call," Tsubasa said, looking around. The place looked like it had indeed been used as some sort of blade-training ground, judging by the scratches on the walls and the large gouges taken out of the floor. But the windows were covered with cobwebs and there was dust on the tops of the boxes that clearly hadn't been disturbed in years. There was nothing living there.

"Where's the next place?" Julian asked Masamune, who shrugged awkwardly.

"We can check one of the garages near the Dungeon Gym that's often used..." he began, but Tsubasa cut him off.

"No. Let's be systematic. We won't find either of them just by dashing around the city like headless chickens. We'll search all these warehouses one by one, and then work our way down to the bottom of town in a grid pattern. Look everywhere, even ridiculous places. We have to find them as quickly as possible."  
Masamune scowled. "Then we should look in all the most likely places first. If we check every tree in the park only to find that they've been in one of the training gyms the whole time, we'll waste a whole lot of time!"

"Which is why we must be systematic and not leave anything out," Tsubasa snapped back. "If we run about all over the city without a plan, we'll play right into their hands. We can't afford the time to be random – they could slip past us easily."

"Only if we don't catch them first."

"QUIET!"

Both Tsubasa and Masamune turned to look at Julian in surprise. The heir to the Konzern family business glared back at them furiously. "We're wasting more time arguing. Tsubasa, Masamune is right, we should check the most likely places first, based on our knowledge of the opponent. But Masamune," he continued as the wielder of the Unicorn bey began a strange sort of victory dance, pointing and laughing at Tsubasa, "Tsubasa has an excellent point. If we just jump from place to place randomly, not only could they get past us, but we will wear ourselves out by covering the ground multiple times."

Tsubasa shook his hair out of his eyes with only the slightest hint of irritation. "Then what do you suggest?"

Julian smiled, a strange, secret smile that spoke of centuries of training in cunning and manipulation to get what the Konzern family wanted. "We'll divide our area into blocks, and work through them systematically, starting with the ones that have the largest number of likely hidey-holes for our little rats."

A clatter in the next warehouse told them that the blue-haired Damian and red-haired Jack might not be the only rats in the vicinity. Tsubasa sighed.

"Alright," he agreed. "Sounds like a plan. Let's go."

.

"Sounds like a plan – let's go!"

Zeo grinned at Toby. "Why didn't I think of that?" he asked as the group of four set out for their destination. "I worked with them for months; I should have remembered!"

Yuu laughed. "Yeah, but you were one of the good guys," he pointed out. "You have to think like the bad guys to have genius ideas like mine and Toby's!"

"So you're saying you're the bad guys?" Max asked, a smile creeping from his eyes to his lips. Yuu skipped ahead of the group before turning round to face them and walking backwards.

"No," he explained. "But we worked with the bad guys and their constellations too, and we know what they think like, 'cause we used to think like that.. okay, Toby didn't mean to, but hey. You worked with the bad guys, but you were still thinking like a good guy, Zeo. Make sense?"

Max exchanged a helpless glance with Zeo; Toby was too busy running ahead to catch Yuu, who sprinted off when he realised that the silver-haired blader was chasing him.

The team of four were heading for the largest park in the area, going on Toby's suggestion that a wide open area would give them a good view of a large section of the city, and Yuu's that Damian and Jack had both used that park to find their opponents before. Besides, there were a large number of bey-dishes in the park, and if Black Dranzer wanted to find more power then there would be an almost limitless supply of mediocre bladers running around in the vicinity. It would be easy to spot any that had been given bit-beasts just by the jump in their power.

"It's good to see Toby having fun," Zeo said quietly as he watched his friend racing Yuu down the road. "He's getting better so quickly it's weird to think that just over a month ago he looked into my face and didn't even recognise me."

"Yes, I heard about what happened," said Max. At Zeo's surprised expression, his smile faded. "My mother works at the foremost Beyblade scientific research facility in America. Dr Ziggurat was one of the experts there for several years until he decided that he would rather work on his own so that he wouldn't have to share the rights – and the responsibilities – of his inventions."

Zeo sighed. "I just hate thinking that he was right all along. Without him, Toby would never have been cured, and so I _have_ to be thankful to him somehow, even though he ruined everything else. Oh, we need to cross the road here."

Toby and Yuu were already on the far side of the road, but the lights had just changed so Zeo and Max had to wait for the green man again. By the time that they reached the opposite pavement, the other two had vanished around another corner, heading for the park at top speed and dodging around pedestrians as they ran.

"Don't worry about it too much," Max said at last. "I used to – _we_ used to – have an opponent like that. His name was Boris, and he was the orchestrator of almost world domination plan we ran into." He paused, then laughed. "It's always about world domination, isn't it? But never mind that. If it hadn't been for him, then our Kai wouldn't have been anywhere near as tough as he is, which means that Tyson also wouldn't be anywhere near as good as he became. He bought someone with a loved one's medical treatment too, and I would never ask for time to be turned back so that he would be permanently defeated the first time we met, because then my friend Crusher's sister would have died, and I couldn't stand that."

Zeo looked up at the older man, eyes still full of confusion. "But... but I don't want to be grateful to someone who nearly destroyed the world, who made my best friend forget who I was, who made me argue with my other best friend and call him a traitor..."

"Kai actually _was_ a traitor," Max said calmly, almost casually. "Three times, two of them to Boris' team. Tyson yelled at him every time, but he still comes round for dinner every second Wednesday."

"What are you getting at?"

"Easy. It's in the past. You've forgiven Masamune, and he's forgiven you, Ziggurat is gone forever, and Toby is healthy again and knows who you are, so stand up straight. The past was the past. The present is the present."

There was a long silence between them as they worked their way down the street and turned the corner that Toby and Yuu had long-since disappeared around. Eventually, Zeo nodded.

"Yeah," he said. "It's hard though."

"It wasn't very long ago," Max agreed. "It took Tyson years to completely forgive Kai for the second time that he abandoned him, and Tyson's one of the most forgiving people I know. But it gets easier." He smiled. "You, Toby and Masamune are good friends. I'm sure you can work it out between you."

Zeo answered the smile with one of his own. "Are you a counsellor or something? You're good at this."

Max laughed. "No. I've just had a lot of advice given to me in my time. Anyway, we should speed up or we'll lose the others."

He was right; Toby and Yuu were nowhere to be seen, even though the road led straight to the park. Zeo rolled his eyes and sped up to a long-striding, easy lope that ate up the ground with surprising speed. Max matched him, demonstrating in a single motion that despite retiring from the competitive world, he was still in superb condition. They ran through the main gates of the park together, only to draw to a halt when they realised that once again, their companions were nowhere in sight.

"Now, where could they have got to?" Zeo muttered, scanning the park with a hand shading his eyes. "I'm sure they weren't _that_ far ahead of us."

"There!"

Max had good eyes. Toby and Yuu were just visible as tiny figures lying on the bank of the large central pond, apparently having flopped down there when running around crazily had lost its appeal. Zeo shook his head in amusement and headed towards them.

"You know, not everything that Ziggurat did was all that bad," Max said after a moment, matching Zeo's strides again. "Mum said that she and her colleagues are going to try replicating the Spiral Force generators in a much smaller scale, because it did actually work." Zeo looked horrified, and Max quickly back-tracked. "No, no, we wouldn't demand that anyone sacrifice their beys or their lives to do it. Mum wants to see if there's any way of just recreating the design first, and then see if there's a safe, humane way of powering it." He looked away, over to the trees at the near side of the park. "It wasn't a bad idea – it worked, and it would have solved the energy crisis, global warming and the decreasing ozone layer all at once. But it was in the hands of a madman, who only wanted money and power, and so it was never going to work out."

"I guess." By now, they had arrived at the bank where Toby and Yuu were now sitting up, laughing at the grass and leaves in each other's hair. "So, no sign of anyone here?"

"We ran around all of the bey-dishes on this side, but we didn't see anything," Toby told him. "We haven't checked the far side of the pond yet."

"Let's go then," Max suggested, holding out a hand to pull Yuu to his feet. "We have to be serious about this."

"We know, we know," Yuu retorted, pulling a beech-leaf out of his hair. "But that doesn't..."

He was cut off by a wordless exclamation from Toby, who was pointing to the other side of the pond. Smoke was rising out of the grass in a long, thin band of silvery-grey, obscuring the trees on the far side of the park.

"What's _that?_" Yuu asked. "Shouldn't someone call the fire brigade?"

"It might just be a barbecue that's gone out of control," Max said, but his voice betrayed his uncertainty. "We should go and make sure it's okay."

The four scrambled up from the bank of the pond and made their way around to the decorative bridge that spanned the narrowest section of water. The smoke was already clearing, almost invisible unless you knew where it had been. Whatever the fire had been, it was already out.

It took the group about five minutes to find the area where the smoke had come from. The grass was burnt to blackness, revealing the dark earth underneath as well. The really strange thing, though, was that it wasn't just in one area – there were long strips of blackness on the otherwise green lawn.

"What is this?" Zeo whispered, kneeling down to touch the black grass. "It's... it's been burnt – but what could burn it like this? It's not natural."

"Not at all," Max said grimly. He had jumped up onto a park bench, and from his slightly higher vantage point he had been able to see what the other three could not. "It's a name."

"Jack," said Zeo instantly. Max nodded.

"And Black Dranzer. There's pictures too. They've been here."

Toby bit his lip. "Then where are they now?"

"I'll call the others," Max said. "We saw the smoke. They might still be in the park. We need to move fast, so you three get started and I'll come and join you as soon as I finish the call."

The others nodded, and Max moved back towards the bridge, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he did.

.

"Nothing," Masamune sighed, closing the door of yet another warehouse. "They're better at Hide-and-Seek than I thought."

Tsubasa rolled his eyes in exasperation. Whilst the system that Julian had suggested was working, it still required far too much apparently aimless wandering for Tsubasa's liking. His eagle was keeping watch from overhead, but hadn't spotted any suspicious movement from a white cape or a long green coat. They had all been hunting for hours, and by now all three of them were tired, hungry and more than a bit irritable. Masamune's running commentary on the places he knew bladers tended to hang out was helpful for Julian, who didn't have a clue where he was, but was seriously annoying Tsubasa, who liked to hunt in silence. On the other hand, Tsubasa's stubborn refusal to leave an area until everything had been checked had cost them much energy and time already. Little arguments kept on springing up between him and the owner of Ray Striker, mostly because it was the first time Masamune had been in a situation where he genuinely knew more than Tsubasa did, and was determined to enjoy it as much as possible.

Just then, the phone rang in Tsubasa's pocket. "Hello? Max?"

"_Tsubasa, get over to the big central park as quickly as you can. We think that Jack and Black Dranzer have been here recently."_

"We're about five minutes away," Tsubasa told him. "Where in the park are you?"

"_On the opposite side of the pond to the main gate. You can't miss it – there's burns all over the ground."_

"We'll be there as soon as possible." Tsubasa clicked the phone shut and looked at his two companions. "The others think they might have found them in the central park. Max wants us over there to check everything with them."

Masamune took off instantly and Tsubasa and Julian had to sprint to catch up with him. "You know where we're going?" Julian asked.

"Oh, of course! Just through here to the right, straight down the street, second left and then we'll be at the main gate. You can see the pond from the gate. It's a shortcut!"

Tsubasa didn't bother to reply, but sped up again. If Jack or Damian were indeed in the park, then the other group had no bit-beasts to defend them. Their only defence until Dranzer, Griffolyon and Unicolyon could get there was the fact that Max could see both bit-beasts and constellations. His golden eyes sharpened with determination as he ran. There was no way that he was going to allow Damian to hurt Yuu - or anyone else.

.

"Let's check in that copse of trees over there," Toby suggested, pointing off to the left. "We can't see them on the grass now, and that's the closest thing that could hide them."

The trees in the copse were young but sturdy things that grew surprisingly close together. The branches low down intertwined with each other, and heavy thorn bushes grew in most of the gaps.

"Huh," said Yuu, somehow squeezing in between two trees growing mere inches apart. "This is weird and stinky. I don't like it."

"It's really dark in here," Zeo said, looking around. "From the outside it looked like quite a sunny place inside. I know kids use this place to make dens all the time, but this is really gloomy."

"Maybe there's a cloud over the sun?" Toby asked. Suddenly he jumped, colliding with Zeo. "What was that?"

"What? Oh – what _was_ it?" Zeo had felt it too – like the brush of spiderwebs over his cheek. Yuu moved back to stand close to the two older bladers, eyes wide and hand on his blade.

"I can't see anything," he whispered.

"Nor can – there it is again!" Toby snatched his hand away from the invisible thing, whatever it was. "It's like... it's like _feathers._"

Suddenly, Zeo went very, very still. "Toby, this Black Dranzer thing that we're chasing... what sort of animal is it, exactly?"

"A-a phoenix..." Toby breathed. "Yuu, stay close. This is bad..."

"You're all _so_ transparent," said a drawling voice from behind them. "I just had to draw a pretty picture and you all come running right into my trap like the silly little birdies you are. My Dark Phoenix _will_ be pleased to have so many new toys to play with."

It was Jack.


	7. Chapter 6 - The Dogs of Hell

**Chapter 6 – The Dogs of Hell**

Tsubasa's face was almost the same colour as his hair. "Jack... he's got Yuu and Zeo and Toby?"

Max nodded, pressing his lips together. "I'm so sorry."

"What happened?" Masamune asked, aghast.

"I've no idea," Max whispered. "I went make the call to you, and the other three ran off into the copse to look for clues. Next thing I knew, Black Dranzer came exploding out of that same copse, carrying them in its claws."

Julian put a hand on his shoulder. "It wasn't your fault," he said. "Besides, if you'd gone with them, who knows how long it could have taken us to find out that they were gone, not just off trying to find clues? Can you remember which way Black Dranzer went?"

"Of course," Max said, straightening up. "There's no time to lose – this way!"

He twisted to sprint off in the right direction, but Tsubasa grabbed his arm. "Wait," he snapped. "What about Gingka and the others? We have to let them know."

"We don't have time!" Masamune exploded. "And anyway, they're in a plane right now – they won't be able to answer the phone. We have to get going!"

Julian nodded, but Max was watching Tsubasa carefully. "Tell the WBBA," the former Blade-breaker suggested quietly. "The Director will tell Gingka and the others as soon as they arrive. It's all we can do now. If we want to get your friends back, we need to move as fast as possible."

Tsubasa hesitated. As a special agent of the WBBA, he knew the importance of keeping everyone up-to-date with his own movements and those of the people he tracked. And against something as terrifying as Black Dranzer, he really would have preferred it if he could just... just let someone else handle it. He didn't _want_ the memories of what he had become under the influence of the Darkness. They were memories of wildness and insanity that he shuddered away from and tried to bury deep within his nightmares.

But now nightmares walked the streets and parks of America, and he had three charges he had failed to protect.

"Fine. Let's go."

.

"Gingka? Are you awake?"

"Huh? Oh... yeah, I'm awake, Kenta." Gingka looked up to see Kenta leaning over the back of his seat from behind, staring down at him. "What's the matter?"  
"How long until we land?"

Gingka checked his watch. "A couple of hours, maybe? The airport's not far from the WBBA headquarters, so we can get sorted really quickly as soon as we're out." He offered a small smile. "Don't worry, Kenta. They're sensible – they'll be absolutely fine. There's seven of them and only two of the bad guys."

"Yeah, but..." Kenta swallowed. "But it's Damian and Jack. I saw what they did to Julian, Tsubasa and Yuu before, and now they'll just be even more powerful. I don't want any of my friends getting hurt. Befall was so... so _savage_ the last time we saw it, and now it'll be even worse!"

Gingka knew how sincere this fear was for the younger boy. Kenta cared a lot about those he decided to call friends, and the idea of even one of them getting hurt was terrifying. "We'll get them," he said confidently. "We've got the Sacred Beasts – they'll help. Plus, once we're there, we'll be able to see the bit-beasts and the constellations because of that thing Madoka gave us... err, what was it called?"

"It's a holographic projector," said Kyouya, voice blurry with sleep but eyes as sharp as broken diamond. "Besides, Kenta, Tsubasa's beaten Jack before, and Tyson said that Burning Cerberus has been defeated by Dragoon once, so it'll be alright. Don't worry. They're all strong bladers."

Kenta nodded and settled back into his seat. But even so, Gingka got the impression that the boy wasn't completely convinced by the comforting words. He bit his lip, looking out at the dark sky outside and watching as tiny flashes of lightning darted through the clouds below.

_Please let us get there on time._

.

Max was a fast runner and a confident guide. It helped that the blonde-haired blader was also capable of seeing the faint trails that the black phoenix had left behind in the air, tiny feathers of flame that spiralled slowly down on miniature thermals before vanishing as they touched the ground.

"This way!"

The group raced around sharp corners and along narrow alleyways as Max tried to keep them travelling in the same direction as the phoenix's flight. They seemed to be heading away from the city centre and towards the suburbs and small parks that surrounded it.

"We checked this area," Masamune panted, fighting to keep up with long-legged Tsubasa. "There was nothing here!"  
"Doesn't mean there's nothing here now!" Max called back. "Hurry up! The trail's fading!" He sped up, and fear for their friends lent wings to four pairs of feet.

"Left!" Max shouted suddenly, and dived sideways into what appeared to be a solid wall of bushes. Trusting him, Tsubasa imitated him perfectly and disappeared as well. Masamune and Julian, not quite so confident, slowed down to take a look at what had happened to their friends. What had at first seemed to be nothing but a tangle of leaves and branches actually held a narrow gate, leading to a small, open area completely surrounded by high walls of thorn-bushes. Masamune frowned. Tsubasa, Julian and he had indeed checked this area, the stronger Tsubasa boosting Julian up to look over the top of the hedge, but it had been empty then. Not that they would have been able to see Black Dranzer alone anyway, as he suddenly realised. The only part of the visualisation program that they had was locked in the computer in the Dungeon Gym.

"Come on, Masamune!" Tsubasa's voice floated over the gate. "Hurry up! We're..."

The sudden silence was more terrifying than any threat. Masamune barrelled through the gate in a panic, only to come face to face with a_ gigantic _three-headed dog. It snarled at him, subharmonics crackling through his ears and making his whole body shake.

"Actually," said Max in a voice that sounded far too casual for comfort, eyes focusing slightly to the left of the dog, "there's _two._"

This really wasn't fair.

"Wh-where's the other one?" To Masamune's surprise, it was not his shaking voice that had spoken. Instead, the voice belonged to an ashen-faced Julian, who was staring at Hades Kerbecs with the look of someone who had just seen his worst nightmare come to life. Oh yeah, now Masamune remembered. Hades Kerbecs had beaten Julian up pretty badly the last time they had met.

"Just there," Max said, pointing into the air where he had been looking.

"Oh dear," said a new voice. "So you do have someone who can see him. What a shame. I'd so hoped to give you all a nice surprise."

Damian Hart stepped calmly out of the shadows of Kerbecs' legs, head tilted to one side curiously. His old white cloak was in tatters and smeared with dirt and grass stains. The golden shoulder-armour had been tarnished with a strange, dark, blue-green. There was something wild and terrible in his wide, white-rimmed eyes, something even more terrifying than the huge dog standing guard over him.

Masamune shivered. Those broken Arrangements had done more harm than he had ever dreamed possible. Some part of Damian would never be able to recover from that loss.

"Are you here to look for your little friends?" Damian asked, but his tone made it less of a question and more of a statement. "I don't have them. Why don't you ask Hades Kerbecs where they've gone?"

Tsubasa's eyes narrowed. "Where is Jack?" he snapped. Damian shrugged fluidly.

"Why should I tell you?" he asked. "The Black Phoenix has its own plans. You shouldn't try to meddle with them." His voice was dangerous.

"Battle me!" Masamune shouted. "When I win, you tell us where they are!"

To his shock and horror, Damian started to laugh. "Just you, little pony-boy? Don't insult me." He raised his hand and flicked out two fingers, pointing. "I'll take you and the silver-haired guy at the same time. I don't think I'll bother with Blondie over there. I've already beaten him once, after all."

Masamune growled. He could still remember that horrible battle and the look on Julian's face as he was dragged down to his first overwhelming defeat. The European blader wore a similar expression now, as he relived those moments. "I'll make you eat those words."

Damian just sneered, setting himself into the standard launch position as Hades Kerbecs disappeared into smoke. "Says the boy who lost to _Zeo._"

"How _dare_ you!" Masamune roared, but Max flung an arm out to stop him from taking a single step forwards.

"Don't," he gritted out between clenched teeth. "Burning Cerberus is still there, and he'll rip you to shreds if you even touch his new master."

Seething, Masamune plunged his hand into his pocket and pulled out Ray Striker. "Fine. Tsubasa and I will just have to beat you this way, then. Come on, Tsubasa, let's get him."

To his surprise, Tsubasa scowled. "Great. I have to battle with you again. Could today get any better?"

"Hey!"

"Fine, fine..." Tsubasa locked Eagle into the launcher in particularly bad grace. "But I'd have been fine taking him down on my own."

"You know I'm stronger than you!"

"Can't you just be quiet for once?"

Damian was watching the chaos with a rather amused expression. "I lost to _these_ guys?" he asked the thin air to his left. Max watched as Burning Cerberus shook one of his huge, fanged heads and nodded another of them. Damian grinned. "Well, I guess I didn't actually lose to _these_ ones specifically. I'll just have to beat them twice as much to make up for the other one." His eyes flashed. "Are you two ready, or are you going to keep bickering?"

"Three!" Masamune was ready.

"Two!" So was Tsubasa.

"One." Damian's expression never changed from its look of cruel glee.

"_LET IT RIP!"_

They were fighting for their friends, Tsubasa forcefully reminded himself. The longer that this battle dragged on, the less likely it was that Yuu, Zeo and Toby would be safe. He had to finish this, fast.

"Eagle, _Metal Wing Smash_!"

Alright, it wasn't his most powerful move, but it got things started with a bang as his blade collided with the strange golden-coloured one that Damian was using. Eagle shot skywards, wings dazzling against the sun. He swept downwards, streaming light behind him, aiming for the middle head of Hades Kerbecs...

...only to be knocked out of the sky by some huge, invisible force. Eagle screamed and spiralled back into the sky, his blade falling away from the assault and letting Masamune take over.

"Alright, Striker, let's wrap this up and go find our friends!" Again, it was easier said than done. Unlike Tsubasa, Masamune managed to avoid the swipe of the unseen Burning Cerberus' paw, but Striker's attack did hardly anything to the powerful gold blade, merely bouncing off the edge.

"Use the bit-beasts!" Max yelled from a few feet behind them, where he was standing by a white-faced and clearly terrified Julian. "And keep out of the way of Burning Cerberus! He's on the left – no, circling right!"

Tsubasa closed his eyes, listening. Something so huge _must_ give off some sort of sound. If he could just lock onto that, he could attack easily.

_There!_

"Attack!"

Eagle's wings flared wide again and he dived once more. This time he was spot on – or at least, Tsubasa assumed he was. A bellowing roar echoed from where he had heard Burning Cerberus moving, and Eagle's talons dug in deep. Now, if he could just get Dranzer to attack as well...

But Tsubasa had been working with Eagle almost all of his life, and had barely known Dranzer a week. Not anticipating how fast the fire phoenix could actually move, he didn't get Eagle out of the way in time. The two collided in an explosion of purple and red feathers and a furious screech from Eagle. His blade shuddered as the two forces within it momentarily warred with each other.

"Hah!" Masamune had been focusing on Hades Kerbecs instead. "Gotcha!"

Hades Kerbecs lifted a huge paw and took a vicious swipe at Striker, but all that did was let Unicolyon gallop around behind the beast and strike at it from the other side. Unfortunately, Masamune was about to discover exactly what Tsubasa had; just having the bit-beast didn't make you their master.

Unicolyon was not known as one of the strongest bit-beasts in Europe for nothing. He hit Hades Kerbecs full-on, but the blow seemed to be muffled somehow. Nevertheless, Hades Kerbecs staggered, and Unicolyon managed to dart underneath its belly and out the other side – only to run straight into Striker.

Immediately the temperamental unicorn reared up, twisting to lock horns (quite literally) with the bit-beast he shared a home with. Masamune's shout of dismay was swallowed up by another roar as Burning Cerberus pounced, sending both unicorns flying without Masamune being able to see where the attack had come from. This was getting immensely frustrating.

"Uni-unicyclone, behave!"

Max rolled his eyes. "He's called Unicolyon, Masamune."

"Oh. Right. Um. Sorry about that." Masamune looked a bit sheepish. "Er, Unicolyon, can you stop fighting with Striker? There's more important things to hit!" Unicolyon, proud and fierce fighter that he was, tossed his head high in defiance. "No, I mean it! We've got to stop Damian and get our friends back, so leave Striker alone!"

Tsubasa had just managed to get Eagle and Dranzer under control. "Go Eagle! _Shining Tornado_ -"

"Oh no you don't!" Damian's voice was a sing-song as Hades Kerbecs leapt up towards where it could see Eagle wheeling around for the attack. "You can't get me!"

Eagle dodged, but in doing so ran into Striker, who in turn staggered into Unicolyon. Dranzer managed to slip out from the chaos as Max watched Burning Cerberus jump forwards and attack the European unicorn.

"Julian, can't you give them a hand?"

The Konzern boy's eyes widened. "I... I want to," he murmured. "But I can't... Damian's too strong for me. I've seen inside the gates of Hell once; I'm never going back there again."

Max swallowed. This was getting dangerous. Damian was running rings around Tsubasa and Masamune, even though his power should theoretically have been equal to theirs. Fighting invisible three-headed dogs was difficult, yes, but Tsubasa and Masamune should have been powerful enough to take one of them down by now if they could manage some sort of joint attack. But they just didn't have the right control of the bit-beasts to use them to their full potential, and so not only their strength but their tactics also suffered.

It really didn't help that they kept running into each other. Damian was actually laughing at them now, but Tsubasa was livid.

"Just stay out of my way, Masamune!" he shouted. "Unlike you, I know what I'm getting into here!"

"Yeah, and unlike _you,_ I've actually managed to land some hits!"

"Completely by accident. You control that thing like a five-year-old. Have you no dignity at all?"

Masamune's eyes blazed. "Oh yeah? Is that what you think? Then how come you can't get Eagle and that Dranzer thing to co-operate?"

"Stop fighting!" Max ordered. "You're making it worse!"

But neither of them listened. Now Tsubasa was outright glaring at Masamune, who was ignoring the battle in order to keep up his side of the argument.

"Why are they arguing?" Julian asked quietly. "They were on the same team in the World Championships and they got on fine then."

Max shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe it's all that static from the Spiral Core making them act weirdly."

To his surprise, Julian nodded. "Tsubasa's usually really level-headed and calm, but when something went wrong at the Championships and he lost control, he was a bit like this." He suddenly blanched again. "No... no, he said he'd conquered that Darkness. It can't be that."

"But he's exhausted," Max said softly. "Just look at his eyes. Masamune's not much better, but Tsubasa looks as if he hasn't slept since this whole thing began."

Julian had to agree; Max had a point. He had seen the shadows clouding Tsubasa's face when the Eagle blader had come to meet him at the airport. Now those shadows seemed to have migrated into his eyes, and they worried Julian.

"He's also frightened," Max continued. "Would I be right in thinking that Tsubasa is normally the responsible one?"

Julian sighed. "Yeah. He's particularly attached to young Yuu – they're best friends." He ducked as Eagle went screeching over their heads, trying to attack in Hades Kerbecs' blind spot but struggling due to the fact that Burning Cerberus kept getting in the way. "He's probably really scared right about now. Yuu's been hurt really badly when Tsubasa wasn't there before."

"That does it," Max said. "I'm going to help them. I might at least be able to help point out where the bit-beasts are. Let it rip!"

The blade he launched wasn't anything particularly special, at least not that Julian could see. It was small and green, and flashed strangely in the sun. But it was fast, zipping right into the middle of the battle and forcing a gap between Ray Striker and the blade Tsubasa had apparently called Gale Dranzer (or so he had said a few hours ago in the Dungeon Gym). For a long second, it held its own against Damian's golden blade as Tsubasa and Masamune scrambled to reorganise their beasts.

Then there were three blades against the golden one, the pressure gradually forcing it backwards towards Damian's feet. Striker had his head down, bracing against Hades Kerbecs as Unicolyon reared on his hind legs and struck out at one of the heads of Burning Cerberus. Eagle tangled his claws in both dogs' flaming tails and tried to pull them off balance, leaving Dranzer to divebomb their heads in an attempt to confuse the massive opponent. For a second, it looked like they were in with a chance.

And then:

"Cerberus, Kerbecs, Joint Special Move: _King of Hades!_"

Four sets of eyes widened in absolute horror. "Wh-?" was all Masamune had time to splutter before Striker, Unicolyon, Eagle and Dranzer all reeled backwards under the immense pressure of a tsunami of fire that poured from Hades Kerbecs. Max's blade, not protected by the power of a bit-beast or a constellation, shattered under the onslaught, and the young man was thrown backwards away from the battle to end up tangled in the nearest thorn-bush.

Julian was about to run over and help him when something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Was... was Hades Kerbecs _kneeling?_

It was. The monstrous dog had lowered all of its heads almost to the floor, its front paws bent in submission. There was something behind it, coming out of the dust of battle, something that dwarfed even the mythical creature in front of it. It was bipedal, humanoid... but there was something inherently _wrong_ about it. It wasn't that it was so huge. It wasn't even the weirdness of Hades Kerbecs bowing before it. The eye skittered over it, refusing to accept its appearance. At once it seemed to be a tall warrior, a young woman, a wise king, a jealous mother, a...

Julian suddenly found himself shaking from head to foot. This...

This was the King of Hades, stepping out of his realm at the call of the dogs of hell that guarded his gates.

"Oh, _now_ we're in for it," he heard Masamune whisper.

* * *

_Yes, I'm mean, I stopped halfway through a battle. I promise that the next part will be uploaded before the 17th September, though. **Promise.**_


	8. Interim Placeholder

**Chapter 6.5 – Place-holder**

Gingka looked around. "Huh?" he muttered. "This doesn't look like the next chapter! Hey, Juniper! Where are we?"

Kyouya shook his head. "I'm not sure; I think we're still in the aeroplane but it's not very obvious."

Gingka frowned. "But she promised that there would be another chapter before the 17th! She promised!"

Kenta looked rather miserable. "Yeah, because that was a really mean cliffhanger she left everyone on at the end of the last chapter. I don't want everyone to die!"

"We won't die," Kyouya snapped. "We're still on the plane, remember?"

"Oh yeah..."

"So what's happened to the story, Kyouya?" Gingka asked.

"Simple," the green-haired boy answered. "Juniper was on track to finish it on time and was really excited about it because it's one of the more important chapters, and then she got really ill over the weekend so she couldn't write and now it's not going to be finished on time. She told me to tell the other guys that they're going to have to wait a couple of extra days to find out what happens to them, and she's really, really sorry about it."

Kenta's eyes went wide. "So... Tsubasa and the others are just going to have to wait?"

"Unfortunately," Kyouya said. "But she apologises to all of her characters and all of her readers for breaking the promise that she PROMISED not to break, and said that she feels absolutely terrible about it, but no-one would have been able to read anything that she came up with whilst she was ill, because it would only have been vague, feverish ramblings that even she couldn't make head nor tail of."

"So... so how long are we going to have to wait?" Gingka asked, folding his arms. "Being on the plane is all very well, but we've been on it for several chapters now and aeroplane food isn't very good. They don't serve hamburgers!"

Kyouya rolled his eyes. "She didn't give an exact date, because on the 17th she has to go back to university and she's working on the 18th and 19th, but certainly before the 20th is finished in Britain and more than likely earlier."

Gingka sat back with a slightly mollified expression. "Fine," he muttered. "I've only got another couple of days to wait, then..."

* * *

_(To all my readers; I am terribly, terribly sorry for breaking that promise. I didn't mean to get sick! But like Kyouya said, you really wouldn't want to read the stuff I write when I'm that ill. I suppose I COULD have finished the chapter since the weekend, but I also had to pack to go back to university and oddly enough I thought that might be quite important.)_


	9. Chapter 7 - Those Who Can See

_Thank you all for your well-wishes and for waiting for this. I'm completely better now! *makes note to self never to promise specific dates again due to prevalence of Murphy's Law in life...*_

_I'm going to leave the interim chapter up until the rest of this story is complete, because otherwise the alerts won't work properly. And because it **was** kind of fun..._

* * *

**Chapter 7 – Those Who Can See**

"Gingka! Gingka! Over here!"

Ryo Hagane stood _inside_ the arrivals gate, flanked by two of the airport security guards. He was waving wildly, so even if the three travellers hadn't heard him over the general babble, they would have noticed him very quickly.

"Good, you're here at last," Hikaru said the moment that they were close enough to see her standing just to the left of the Director of the WBBA. "We had a message from Tsubasa not long ago. Yuu, Toby and Zeo have been captured by Damian and Jack – possibly with the help of that Black Dranzer thing – and so he, Max, Masamune and Julian have gone to rescue them. We managed to track Tsubasa's phone and it seems that he called from the main park in the centre of the city."

"W-wait..." stuttered Kenta. "Slow down a second... are you saying that Yuu, Zeo and Toby have really been kidnapped?"

Ryo shrugged awkwardly, already leading the way out of the airport to where tens of taxis stood in ranks. "That's what Tsubasa told us. They were with Max, apparently, and they got split up looking in the park for clues. Max alerted the others as soon as he realised what happened and they had some sort of trail they were able to follow."

"So where are they now?" Gingka asked. "They're not still in the park, are they?"

Hikaru sighed as she checked left and right before crossing the road to where an unmarked seven-seater car stood. "No. We sent a team out as soon as the message came through and they're nowhere in sight. There's agents combing the city right now, but we need to be alert to move the second we get any information. Get in the car; we're going to HQ."

"Central enough," Kyouya muttered, slinging his bag into the boot of the car. "We need to hurry, though. If they're against Black Dranzer and – what was it called? Fiery Cerberus?"

"Burning Cerberus," Hikaru corrected as she shut the door on her side.

"Burning Cerberus, then. If they're against those two, they're going to need all of the Sacred Beasts. That's what Kai said."

"Max said the same," Ryo confirmed. "He said it took everything they had, and the repentance and near-surrender of Black Dranzer's controller, to defeat it last time. Somehow I doubt that Jack is going to surrender any time soon."

"Then they've only got Dranzer," Kenta breathed, pausing as he did up his seatbelt. "That's nowhere near enough."

Gingka looked out of the window at the tall buildings around them, and suddenly wished that Kai or Tyson had been able to come with them. It wasn't that he didn't trust this Max guy - if Kai and Tyson said he was to be trusted then that was good enough - but he would have been more comfortable with more people able to see bit-beasts naturally. It would make finding them an awful lot easier...

"Wait!" he exclaimed, just as the driver pulled away from the kerb. "I bet that'd work!"

"What?" Ryo asked, turning around in his seat, eyes full of concern.

Gingka twisted around in his seat to grab his bag, which he had chucked into the boot on top of Kyouya's. Thank goodness the top hadn't been put over them. "This!" He pulled out a chunky piece of plastic and metal about thirty centimetres long and five wide, with a shallow groove running all along its length. "It's what Madoka's been working on all this time! I know it looks a bit weird, but this is it stripped down as far as she could so we could get it in our luggage. She said it needs a screen attached to it, but this is all the stuff you need for that holographic echolocator thingy. It only works for about ten metres like this, but I bet we could amp it up with the power at HQ, right? And if we could see one of the bit-beasts, we could find where they all are!"

Ryo's expression lit up. "You're right. Hikaru, inform HQ that we'll need the top technicians available sent up to the main screen." The blue-haired girl nodded quickly, glancing down at her tablet computer and tapping a message into the screen.

"What was it that Madoka called it?" Kenta suddenly asked. "It was something something Dimensions And Relative Data Interfaces Imaging?"

Kyouya rolled his eyes. "She said it was a 'Geometric Interface for Dimensional Data Imaging'," he said. "'GIDDI' for short."

"Oh yeah... that was it." Kenta tugged absently at his seatbelt as the car turned left, heading for the towering WBBA Headquarters in the centre of the city. "I hope it'll work."

"It will," Gingka said confidently. "Madoka's never failed, has she? She won't now. It'll be fine."

He sounded certain, but his father had known him all his life, and heard what the others didn't.

Ryo met Gingka's eyes, trying to instil confidence in his son through sheer force of will. "We'll find them, Gingka. I promise."

.

"MASAMUNE!"

Tsubasa launched himself at Masamune just in time to knock the younger boy off his feet and avoid a death-blow from the hand of the King of Hades. "Watch out! You could have been seriously injured!"

"Yeah, yeah, I've got it!" Masamune's voice wasn't as arrogant as Tsubasa had expected, sounding honestly shaken. "Striker! Hold him off!"

The green-glowing unicorn tossed his head and lunged at the King of Hades, somehow shielding Tsubasa and Masamune for long enough to let the pair scramble to their feet.

"What kind of power is this?" Tsubasa muttered, staring at the eldritch figure that stood between the two three-headed dogs. The burning wind from the realm of Hades was beginning to blow his hair across his eyes. "To summon a third beast with the help of the other two? Even Sophie and Wales couldn't do that."

Masamune looked unnervingly grim. "We've got to stop it, now," he said. "Otherwise we've got no hope."

Tsubasa nodded in agreement. "If we can somehow combine all our attacks – I can use Eagle to push him back. Having two legs means that thing will be less stable than the dogs so it won't be hard to knock him over. Then you send Unicolyon in to push him right back, and with Dranzer's backing he should be strong enough. Then we can focus on the dogs one at a..."

"And there you go again," Masamune muttered. The wind whined around him, building. "Always it's the plans, the clever shots, you knowing everything and showing off..."

"_I'm_ the one showing off?" Tsubasa suddenly snapped, whirling on him. "Might I remind you who it was who always saying _I'm number one_ and yet against our final _four_ opponents in the World Championships _lost?_"

"That's not fair! I won loads of times in-between _and_ before that, Mr Hair-So-Long-It-Should-Be-A-Girl's!"

Tsubasa seemed to take this insult without really hearing it, but shot back: "Well, as I've said before, _your_ hair is a lethal weapon!"

"And you're still just as grumpy as you always were!"

"At least _my_ bit-beast is doing what I tell him to!"

"Oh, so you're _telling_ him to crash into Eagle. That explains a lot."

"_Masamune!"_

The argument was escalating fast. Damian's laughter had swung out of creepy and into outright hysterics, his mind shattering like a reflections off of a broken diamond. The King of Hades towered over all of them, one arm raised (_was it an arm? Sometimes Julian thought it was a hoof, sometimes a paw – was that a fin?)_ above its head. The winds that whipped around its strange, unnerving form were rising to an unearthly shriek. Julian felt sick. He was frozen at the edge of the battlefield, unable to move as his worst nightmares replayed themselves across his mind.

_No!_ he screamed at himself. He was stronger than this, stronger than some little blue-haired upstart who thought to meddle with powers beyond his control!

So why was he so afraid? What had happened to the proud Julian Konzern who would never back down from a challenge?

That Julian's spirit had been dragged mercilessly towards the Gates of Hades, into them, _past_ them... had it ever come out? Was he still standing on that blackened plain, waiting for the flaming chains to bind Destroyer to the earth forever?

"Julian! You have to fight it! Griffolyon's the only one who can help now!"

It was Max who shouted, trapped as he was in the thorn-bushes that clung to his clothes like jagged, multi-fingered hands. Julian stared at the gigantic figure of the King of Hades, measuring it up to his own Destroyer. In terms of power, there was no comparison. Destroyer was a pawn in front of this... this _thing_ that emerged from the depths of hell. He didn't know Griffolyon well enough to understand the full extent of the griffon's strength, and even if he _had _known_,_ he had no idea what the names of his attacks were. You couldn't just shout a string of random but awesome-sounding words at a constellation (or, he supposed, bit-beast) and expect it to do what you wanted. It required many hours of training and practice, and a link that was instinctive more than taught. He just didn't have that with the bit-beast he had owned for barely a week, and nothing except time would give it to him.

"_Julian!_" Max screamed over the howl of the wind. "Griffolyon _chose_ you! He knows you're the only one who could do this!"

Julian's fingers closed convulsively over the blade in his hand. Could he go through all that again? That terrible moment when Destroyer had been dragged body and soul away from him and into the Gates of Hades had been branded across his mind ever since it had happened.

But Max wasn't finished. The wind had grown even louder, but Julian could still just about hear what the blonde-haired young man was saying.

"You're the only man in the whole world with enough power to become his bearer, Julian! Don't let him down!"

The only one powerful enough? No. A creature as powerful as Griffolyon shouldn't have chosen someone so weak to bear him. Julian couldn't even keep his own constellation safe.

"He knows you're not ready, but he's there to help you! Just _trust_ him!"

He could not trust himself. He could not trust his memories. He could not trust Destroyer against the dual might of the three-headed dogs.

But Julian did trust in the history of his family, and in the history of the ancient German family of Jurgens, who were now led by the strong, brilliant Robert, true owner of Griffolyon. If Max said that Griffolyon chose him, Julian, then he had to be worthy enough to match one of the most powerful families in Europe.

One of the most powerful – except for the Konzerns.

Julian Konzern, heir of the family line and the best blader in Europe, straightened his spine and clicked Gravity Destroyer into his launcher. It was pride, not courage, that placed it there, just as it was pride, not courage, that pulled the launcher and sent the black blade skimming down to meet the golden blade Damian was using.

"Gr-Griffolyon." His voice shook on the first attempt, then strengthened. "Griffolyon!"

Some strange bell-like sound rang through his head; the cry of a griffon sighting its prey. Julian's vision filled with purple feathers tipped with icy blue, and a rampant surge of power almost overwhelmed him. It wasn't at all like the sturdy, familiar power of Destroyer. Instead, it was wild, fantastic, _fantastical._ Nothing could ever have prepared him for it.

"Griffolyon, _Wing Dagger!_"

The words spilled from his mouth automatically, an idea of power taking form as bright-feathered arrows that would plunge like assassins' daggers into the form of any opponent who tried to stand before the might of the ancient rulers of Europe. Feathered darts rained down out of nowhere and slammed into the skin of – of whatever it was that the King of Hades was at that second, sending fire licking across the whole strange form. The figure fell back a step under the onslaught, almost stumbling.

"Tsubasa, Masamune, get your act together!" Max shouted as the downpour of feathers began to slow. "Quick, before he manages to get up again!"

For a second, it looked like Masamune was about to launch into yet another war of words with his silver-haired companion, but at the last moment he closed his mouth and bit back the insult. "Let's go, Tsubasa."

Tsubasa blinked, and then a slow smile crept across his lips. "Because you've figured out that my plan is best?"

"No... because your plan is the _only_ plan, your plans are usually pretty good, and because we shouldn't be fighting! We've got enemies to battle now and friends to save!"

The smile twisted into something halfway between a smirk and a wry grin. "Then I guess teaming up with you for now wouldn't be such a bad plan, even if you do fight in such an untidy way. Gale Dranzer!"

Eagle and Dranzer swept into place above Tsubasa's head, waiting for the next command. They held perfectly still in their airspace, eyes burning with equal fire as they both listened for their master's voice.

Masamune grinned as his two unicorns thundered back to him, flanking him. "Okay, Tsubasa – enemies first, you next! I'll prove to you that I definitely deserved to be on the winning finalists team, even if I lost my match!"

_So that was what this was about,_ Julian realised. Tsubasa still hadn't quite forgiven himself for missing the finals and putting his team in the position where they had to borrow the power of a blader like Ryuga in order to proceed. Masamune hadn't forgiven himself for losing to his friend. So the two fought with each other to try and regain that lost honour of being the true winners on the Gan Gan Galaxy team.

"On my mark, then, Masamune!" The air seemed to hum with anticipation as Tsubasa swept his arms out to his sides, winglike. "Eagle, Dranzer!"

Masamune raised one hand to point ahead of him, levelling his attack at the centre of what was currently the breastplate of the King of Hades. "Striker, Unicolyon!"

"_Joint Special Move!"_

How they knew the words, neither Tsubasa nor Masamune could ever say. It was as if some foreign intelligence had overwhelmed their minds, using them as mouthpieces and channels for a terrifying blaze of power.

"_Bellerophon's Spear!"_

The attack swept down from the wings of the paired birds like a waterfall of light, engulfing the unicorns and lifting them clear off their feet. Like the white horses that raced along the tips of waves, Striker and Unicolyon galloped on the water, manes blown by the fierce wind, heads down and the sharp points of their horns pointed straight at the King of Hades. Closer and closer they drew, and the light coalesced on their coats and down their pearly horns to form a flickering sphere of perfect brightness, like a miniature star. They crashed into the King of Hades with all the force of a supernova, perfectly in sync with each other as the eagle and the phoenix spread their wings and drove them forwards.

The light was too much. With a howl of frustration and rage, the King of Hades fell back another step, then another. As if the very Gates of Hades were closing behind him, he seemed to be fading before their eyes. Beside him, Hades Kerbecs set up an ear-shattering howl of pain as the remnants of the light washed over him and bowled him off his feet, back into the depths of Tartarus where he belonged. Max cheered as Burning Cerberus suffered the same fate, three heads still baying for blood even as the gates slammed shut almost on the bit-beast's tail.

By the time that the dust had settled, both Damian and the golden blade were gone.

"W-we did it?" Tsubasa asked the silent park, rather shakily.

"We did it!" Masamune confirmed with a cheer, holding up a hand to high-five with Julian. The European boy gave him a slightly confused look. "That coward ran away with his tail between his legs!"

Tsubasa wasn't completely sure that was the case – he at least had not yet forgotten that Damian was not their only opponent in the wider scale of things – but that was something to worry about later. Right now, they had people to find.

Julian, who had recovered enough from the shock of Griffolyon's power to go and help Max scramble out of the thorn-bushes, suddenly gave a yell. "Tsubasa! Max! I've found them!"

"Toby! Zeo!"

"Yuu!"

Julian had indeed found them, bound and gagged and hidden in a small clearing at the centre of an almost complete circle of thorn-bushes. Had it not been for Max flattening some of the branches, perhaps they could have looked forever to find the entrance.

A tiny pocket-knife, concealed in Tsubasa's belt, made quick work of the gags and ropes, and the group of friends were finally reunited. In a chaotic clamour of voices, all three captives tried to explain how Black Dranzer must have been waiting, invisible to them, in the grove of trees, then captured them in its claws as they entered. Yuu tried to describe the terrifying flight in unseen claws across several parks and buildings before being dropped none-too-carefully in this particular thorn-encircled patch of grass, whilst Toby spluttered something about trying to get out of the ropes and gags themselves and not managing to even loosen the horribly tight knots, and Zeo shivered as he recalled how Black Dranzer had swept down to guard them right up until Damian had arrived to take over, just before they had all heard Tsubasa, Max, Julian and Masamune enter the park.

"Are the others coming soon?" Yuu wanted to know.

"I've no idea," Tsubasa had to admit. "We gave them a call to let them know we were going after you, but we should get back to HQ and report in before we try to do anything else. Otherwise someone else might end up kidna-"

"Tsubasa, behind you!"

Tsubasa swung around just a second too late. Even as he automatically launched Eagle – no, it was Gale Dranzer now, because he had both in his blade – the sky above him went black.

It was at once the most beautiful and the most ugly thing he had ever seen in his life. Physically, it was perfect, each feather shining in its place, glistening over taut skin and muscle. The longer feathers at the tail shone darkly in the sudden dimness, dark red flames flickering over their edges. Its frame was huge, easily dwarfing all of the creatures that had been seen that day, even the King of Hades, and the power and strength in every line of its enormous body spoke of battles won and experience gained. Its eyes weren't beady, but jewel-like, stunning.

But those eyes were dead, like cold black stars in the utter emptiness of space. They were eyes that had seen bloodshed and battle, and had delighted in both even as it danced in the ruin and destruction it had caused. The feathers were pitch-black but tar-like, a thick, cloying darkness that sucked in all the light around the park like a black hole. Only the faintest glimmering of red fire outlined each limb, and the beak was cruel and hooked.

It was Black Dranzer.

It was _evil._

Tsubasa felt Yuu step forwards and admired the younger boy's bravery – or was it foolishness? - until he realised that Yuu was doing nothing more than closing a gap in their line. The seven of them stood arrayed against the monstrous darkness, not quite realising that the same thought was flickering through all their heads.

_How on earth can we beat this thing?_

"So you did come after all."

His green jacket was tattered, and his hair wasn't as neatly combed as it had once been, but there was no mistaking Jack, the owner of Befall and erstwhile member of Team Starbreaker.

Except that, to look at his face, perhaps he might have been mistaken for another. For Jack's eyes were no longer alive with mischief, malice and love for his own violent artworks, but as dead and cold as the eyes of the black phoenix standing above him.

"Jack..." Tsubasa whispered. "What happened to you?"

"I didn't know anything..." Jack's voice was dreamy, drifting. "I asked the world "What should I do now?" I was nothing without the Arrangement System, nothing! But then..." The young man shuddered. "Then _he_ came. The black phoenix, burning with dark fire. He gave me everything I could want, he desired only to win. He was beautiful, a perfect work of art... more perfect than anything I could ever make. We carved our names and images in blackness on the earth, and I knew that I had reached my full potential."

Tsubasa recoiled, moving back yet another step at the horrible look on Jack's face. It wasn't even human any more. There could be no doubt that the creature standing opposite him was no longer Jack, but some terrible blend of Jack's physical frame and Black Dranzer's absolute evil.

Was this what he had looked like under the control of the Darkness?

The silver-haired blader swallowed. He had feared his Dark Eagle, his Dark self so much that it had nearly crippled him. This thing that Jack had become was far, far worse. There was no way that Dranzer's spark could burn through all of the Darkness that came with the rise of his evil counterpart.

High above, Dranzer suddenly flared his wings wide and drove straight upwards without any input from Tsubasa at all. He seemed almost to be leaving the battle in disgust, his tail flipping haughtily as he sailed out of the reach of the dark phoenix.

"Dranzer?" Tsubasa called. "What are you doing? Come back! Attack!"

But the fire-phoenix ignored him. Tsubasa suddenly felt the icy cold of realisation hit him with full force. Kai had warned him this might happen. Dranzer was a proud creature who placed great store by his master's own strength of will and determination. Any doubt, any moment of being tentative about an attack, and the burning-bright phoenix would reject his master utterly.

The blade named Gale Dranzer skidded and slipped in the short grass as Tsubasa fought for control. Eagle was circling overhead, worried and fearful as Dranzer tossed back his shining head and continued to ignore Tsubasa's commands.

"Oh dear," crowed Jack. "I remember what you did to my lovely artwork the last time we met. I've been looking forward _so _much to doing exactly the same to _you._" His laugh was even worse than Damian's, almost crackling with some twisted sort of insanity forced on him by the occupying bit-beast.

Black Dranzer's midnight-black wings covered the sun, plunging the whole park into darkness. Tsubasa tried to reach out to Dranzer and reignite the phoenix's flames, but there was nothing there. All that was left was the faintest wisp of arrogant acknowledgement and the cruel, dispassionate glare of Black Dranzer. Humans were insects before the black phoenix and its desires. They did not need to be spoken to, merely toyed with, played with, broken and destroyed as necessary. They should all kneel and beg for mercy at the ebony-clawed feet of their absolute master.

Tsubasa fought the feeling. He had never begged for anything, not like this. If only he could restore his link to Dranzer, perhaps he could do something, _anything._

Anything that could burn away the skywide wings of his terrible opponent.

His terrible, _visible, __**bit-beast**_ opponent.

Tsubasa's eyes went wide.

* * *

_(I am very bad. I managed to sneak a Doctor Who reference into a Beyblade story...)_

_Bonus points for anyone who realises why Tsubasa and Masamune's joint special move is called Bellerophon's Spear._


End file.
